Morice Land and Resource Management Plan
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- Recommendations to the LRMP Table
- Guided Tours of Historic Mines and Prospecting Tours
Market AnalysisThe demonstrated ability for ‘Ksan to attract about 20,000 visitors annually combined with the visitor demand for Northwest First Nations experiences and information make establishing sites including the one planned for Moricetown Canyon potentially viable. The large demand is for roadside, or near roadside, active interpretative sites where visitors can interact with life sized displays and current First Nations people. The economic viability of these sites depends heavily on the owners ability to attract and use funding to establish and renew the physical structures while relying on gate receipts and gift shop sales for annual operating costs. The financial success of the Revelstoke Railroad Museum provides a good model to follow. Other out of province examples are: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre near Ft. McLeod in Southern Alberta and Wanuskewin Heritage Park on the outskirts of Saskatoon, Sasketchewan. To establish a facility like this in the Morice LRMP near Houston would be a major undertaking and process and systems have already been developed to make the process as easy as possible. Recommendations to the LRMP TableTo advance the development of First Nations Cultural Heritage Sites the Morice LRMP needs to consider the following recommendations: Recommendation - Identify the sites near the Bulkley River along Highway 16 near Houston or along Babine Lake that are potential sites for a First Nations Cultural Heritage Interpretive Centre. Recommendation - Identify the areas around the site that require specific resource management to maximize the quality of the site. Guided Tours of Historic Mines and Prospecting ToursOverviewThe Morice Land and Resource Management Planning area comprises a region running northeast/southwest of Houston BC. The region is characterized by a relatively low relief of the interior plateau and referred to geologically as being in the Stikinia/Quesnellia Terranes. Although there is moderate topography, the region has been challenging for mineral explorationists because of a blanket of regional post Pleistocene glacial overburden. As a result, many of the showings of the region have been discovered by more advanced methods beyond the traditional prospecting, associated with more “historical” discoveries. British Columbia is rich in mining history, which is considered an important part of the Provinces’ frontier. For decades the mining experience has been built into the tourism framework of both British Columbia and the Yukon through three different tourism development and promotion strategies:
Experiences are educational and can be either guided tours or self-guided. While one is a re-enactment experience and very theatrical, another remains a nature-based experience almost archaeological. The third is an experience based on learning about an industry. The construction and ongoing expansion of Barkerville between 1968-78 was probably the peak of the heritage mine tour experience coinciding with parent’s eager to present young baby-boomers with an experiential school vacation. Since the 1990’s British Columbia’s Cariboo Gold Rush has lost its position as a visitor destinations theme, to the Yukon’s Klondike Gold Rush. The Yukon has created a significant infrastructure around the Klondike Gold Rush theme, helped largely by the cruise ship traffic docking in Skagway and trips being organized by companies like Holland America into Whitehorse and Dawson City. In British Columbia, Barkerville is being sold to the private sector and is considered in dire straights financially. Given current regulation not only in BC but also in all of Canada, there will never be another "ghost town" as any mine must remove all evidence of infrastructure at the end of the mines life. Beyond removing buildings, slopes must be re-contoured, waste piles buried and mine openings closed. At many modern reclaimed sites, even finding mineral specimens for rockhounds is difficult. Initial mineral discoveries in the Morice region date back to around 1910 to 1925. The showings found were typically small but high grade. The initial reserves were exhausted quickly with little development done until the 1960's. Low grade "porphyry style" copper mineralization became an economic target, facilitated by advances in high tonnage/low grade mining technologies. Most sites, depending on climate, prior to about 1950, have limited tourist value. Although many global travelers are no longer looking for a sanitized heritage theme park setting in their travel experience, most of the older sites in their reclaimed state are disappointing to visitors as their perception of old mines includes buildings and some artefacts. Sites, whose history dates from the 1960s to present, generally have two fates. If the property has had a lapse of ownership, government regulations have required the last operator to decommission the mine by removing all infrastructure and closing mine openings. If the mine has been continuously owned, mining companies are reluctant to allow visitors on site for reasons of liability, lack of staff and/or a simple unwillingness to deal with tourists. For the most part, heritage mining sites and prospecting tours in the Morice area would have to fit within a nature-based travel experience; would have to be authentic within an educational and archaeological framework; have a special emphasis on recent mining exploration and then dovetailed with mineral, rock and gem hunting. Download 1.06 Mb. Share with your friends:
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