I really like unusual places and unordinary museums. I have visited several such places already (ex-ICBM base that is now a museum tops the list), and I was glad to discover very unusual museum here in BC.
Just 40 minutes north of Vancouver along the Sea to Sky Highway located a town of Britannia Beach. It was established in early 1900s for mining copper in nearby mountains. It has eventually grown to be the top producer of copper in British Empire.
The mining stopped in 1974, due to high taxes and rising environmental concerns. Luckily, the site was was not abandoned, but it has been converted into a museum of mining, that is now called Britannia Mine Museum. And this museum totally rocks!
There are many exhibits, from huge 250-tonn dump truck to a simulation of Yukon gold mining (you can actually take what you will find!). You can learn more about various minerals and their role in everyday life, watch interesting movie about history of the mine and town. But what is the most exciting part, you can actually go underground! You cannot really go very deep into the mine, I must admit, but it is more then enough to get a feeling!
The tour is amazing, passionate guide explains clearly how the mine worked and shows how equipment operate!
You can also visit the huge 20-storey building that is a concentrator. It is a facility that was crushing rocks and extracting copper ore. Very impressive both inside and outside, huge industrial facility that has multiple levels, countless pipes and mechanisms. They even filmed several episodes of X-Files there!
It is a really great place to visit!
