Historically overlooked silver rushes of BC shine in new book by award-winning Slocanauthor
The year is 1891, and a slew of minors, prospectors, and capitalists from across Canada and the
United States are flooding into British Columbia in search of fortune. The infamous Klondike
Gold Rush of the Yukon and Alaska wouldn’t begin for another five years, and the Fraser Gold
Rush was long over, so why were so many immigrating to the cold, dense forests of interior BC?
Those who journeyed to the remote mining camps of the Slocan region were on the hunt for
something lesser known but no less shiny: silver.
Often overlooked compared to gold rushes, BC’s silver rush of the 1890s and its accompanying
boom towns in the Slocan region are the main characters of award-winning author Peter Smith’s
newest book, Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan: A History of British Columbia’s Silver
Rush (Heritage House, 2025), which came out in April. Including stories of prospectors and
merchants, Indigenous Peoples, women, American fortune hunters, and diverse immigrants,
Smith’s narrative puts a human face of the otherwise forgotten legacy of “Silvery Slocan.”
“I think it's important for people to know that the people who were mining for silver contributed
just as much as those who were mining for gold,” Smith says.
Previously celebrated by winning the BC Historical Federation’s Community History Award in
2020 for his book Silver Rush: British Columbia’s Silvery Slocan, 1891-1900, Smith wanted
Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan to focus less on the minutiae of mining claims and
more on the everyday lives of the people in the community. Intended for a more general audience
than Silver Rush, Smith’s sophomore title includes more information on fraternal celebration,
sports, entertainment and past-times, plus additional details on Indigenous individuals and
contributions. A compelling compilation of archival material, historical facts, and first-hand
accounts, Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan also includes rare and unpublished
photographs.
Born and raised in Victoria and Saanich, Smith moved from Vancouver Island to the Slocan
district in the mid-1970s, where he became captivated by the region’s history. Smith interviewed
several Slocan pioneers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and their testimonials, intermixed with
contemporary newspaper accounts, show a side of Slocan previously unknown to succeeding
generations.
“Through lively anecdotes and exhaustive research, Peter Smith has written a story worth telling
of The Slocan,” says Lynne Bowen, and award-winning historian and author of Whoever Gives
Us Bread: The Story of Italians in British Columbia.
Though plummeting silver prices, labour disputes, and inept government management of the
industry would all put an end to the glory days of 1890s Slocan, these urbanized camps acted as
home for culture booms in the decade silver was king. Smith both explores Slocan’s influence in
local politics and exposes the vein of discriminatory practises in these isolated camps—while the
confined spaces the workers occupied meant that the public face of intolerance was often more
muted than it might have been in less diverse settings, the racist attitudes towards the Indigenous
population, Black settlers, and anti-Chinese sentiments cloud the advances Slocan was at the
forefront of.
“We should not downplay the threads of intolerance that ran through the western mining
frontier,” reiterates Smith. “We only learn from history by acknowledging it.”
A previous civil servant, Smith has worked on the BC Historic Sites Advisory Board and is a
member of both the British Columbia Historical Association and the Silvery Slocan Historical
Society. After a long career in Information Access, he retired to Ladysmith, BC in 2011.
“A colourful, compelling narrative, Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan pulls readers deep
into the glory days of British Columbia’s silver mining boom and the sheer grit and gumption it
took to be part of it”, says Katherine Palmer Gordon, author of The Slocan: Portrait of a
Valley and the award-winning This Place is Who We Are.
Readers wanting to learn more about BC’s history can now get this book—dubbed “the most
detailed and accurate account of the Silvery Slocan mining rush ever written” according to
historian and author Greg Nesteroff (Lost Kootenays).
Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan: A History of British Columbia’s Silver Rush by Peter
Smith ($34.95) is now available in stores and online.
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