R.A. ‘Volcanic’ Brown Was an Unlikely Hero and Legend

Of all the stories of lost treasure in British Columbia the legendary Lost Creek Mine has the most personal meaning for me.

It helped to set me on the path to becoming a lifelong writer/historian. All thanks to my growing up in Victoria in the 1950s on a diet of, first, American comic books, then American magazines, movies and TV.

That's because we Canadians didn’t celebrate our history then, didn’t even teach it in school, aside from a passing reference to the arrival of the French in Quebec; it was Grade 8 before I again encountered Canadian history, albeit in diluted form, but enough this time to kindle my interest.

All the while, my fascination for American history continued to grow; Gene Autry and Davie Crockett were my childhood heroes because I knew of no Canadians worthy of my boyish admiration.

In the course of all this I became intrigued by stories of lost treasure—in the United States, of course: in the Louisiana bayous, off the Florida Keys, in the American Southwest. I knew about the Lost Dutchman Mine but nothing about the Lost Creek Mine.

All that changed dramatically, again thanks to American TV. I’d become a fan of Bill Burrud's weekly documentary, Lost Treasure. All sites covered were within the United States—until the evening I heard Bill mention a lost murderer's mine in the forbidding mountains beyond New Westminster.

New Westminster! I almost fell out of my chair.

That was almost in my own backyard! The die was cast; I was off to the Provincial Archives to innocently inquire of the ladies on duty if they had anything on file on lost treasures in British Columbia.

Indeed they did, and I've been researching and writing about it ever since.

But what must be British Columbia's most legendary tale of a lost gold mine isn’t the subject of next week’s Chronicles. No, I’m going to tell you about one of the most colourful provincial prospectors of all time.

R.A. ‘Volcanic’ Brown was the discoverer of one of the richest copper mines in B.C. who became a living legend.

When, in his 80s, he vanished while searching for the Lost Creek Mine, he left a mason jar of nuggets and the question that tantalizes many today: had he found Slumach’s mine before falling victim of its curse?

The amazing story of the Lost Creek Mine has been told many times before; next week in the Chronicles, I’ll introduce you to the amazing man known as Volcanic Brown.

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PHOTO CAPTION: Even though Brown looks old, frail and lame in this photo, that didn’t stop him from braving the Pitt River mountains in search of a legendary lost mine. — https://www.westcoastplacer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VolcanicBrown.jpg