In this week’s “Small Villages in Canada,” we will visit, through the magic of newsprint, the Great White North: Keno City, Yukon. This small community is home to a now-closed silver-lead mining area on Keno Hill. Population levels in Keno City have fluctuated in response to the mining activity in the area after discovering rich silver and lead ore deposits on Keno Hill in 1919. Once a booming frontier mining town, Keno City was named after the popular gambling game played in North American mining camps until, in 1989, the United Keno Hill closed the mines and that was when the remaining citizens pursued a more sustainable industry than closed mines; tourism.
Keno City is located in the Yukon found at Mile 69.1 Yukon Highway 11, at the end of the Silver Trial highway, a 7 hour drive north of Whitehorse. Now populated with approximately 15 people from two families, its residents run and maintain many tourist attractions such as its hiking trials, an alpine interpretive centre, artist studios, and their mining museum. In the summer, tourists can hike the trails, see the alpine wild life, and camp on the campgrounds run by the Keno City community.
The Keno City’s Mining Museum contains an extensive collection dedicated to the history of mining in the Yukon from the early 1900s until the present. The building itself is a relic of the past, as it is Keno City’s old community centre built in the 1920s. This museum displays early tools and equipment, along with photographs and memorabilia which capture the gold and silver mining history of the area. There you learn about the geological landscape and the everyday lives of a silver miner in an isolated northern mining community.
On July 10,1919 a prospector by the name of Louis Beauvette staked out a claim identified as Roulette on Sheep Hill near Mayo Lake and renamed it Keno Hill. Like many prospectors, Beauvette lacked the money to develop Keno Hill so he contacted A.K. Schellinger, an engineer, to convince the Yukon Gold Company (YGC) to invest in establishing mining operations. Once word of this deal with the Yukon Gold Company spread, 600 claims were filled in the Keno Hill area in the next year. Like most to isolated northern mines, the Keno mines were nearly inaccessible. Yukon River ships were unable to ascend the shallow and fast-running Stewart River and smaller-draught vessels were unable to proceed past Mayo, about 60 kilometres from the mines. The silver and dead ore deposits were so rich that it was enough to offset the shipping costs that would have otherwise made the entire operation unfeasible.
Only the richest of silver deposits were mined until 1924, when the company leased the mine’s operations to the Treadwell Yukon Company. Treadwell assigned Livingston Wernecke, a geologist, to manage the operations of the mine. Wernecke realized the most cost effective way to run the Keno Mine would be to develop long-term strategy and operations. By deploying tractor trains from the mine in 1922, ore could be efficiently hauled to Mayo to be shipped. A concentration mill was built in 1924 to exploit milling-grade ores as well as high-grade silver. The Treadwell Yukon Company bought out surrounding mining operations and controlled most of Keno Hill’s mining operations by 1930. That year, Keno Hill accounted for 14% of all Canadian silver production.
Keno City provides a glimpse into the rich history of mining operations in Canada, with its comprehensive mining museum and the stunning alpine landscape (according to Wikipedia). Once a thriving mining district and now a living ghost town, Keno City is one of the smallest villages in Canada. In the next issue, we will discover Hedley. Not the popular Canadian pop-rock sensation with hit songs such as “Never Too Late” and “Cha-Ching”, but an unincorporated town in southern British Columbia with a population of 400.
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