From a page on the Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC.
The People's History
Granite Creek
Contributed by: John
Contributed on: June 05 2008
Category: Helping the Environment
Region: Vancouver, Coast and Mountains
Many years ago while my wife and I were exploring back roads and older areas of British Columbia we came to a field with a few ruins around the site. There was an energy that permeated the area and a very big old concrete monolith that was missing what could only have been a plaque.
It soon came to us that this was the site of some old town.
I started camping up around Granite Creek and found the old town site to be very interesting. Why were there so many holes all over? I would later find out that people were digging for a pail of platinum nuggets "treasure Hunting".
Treasure had also been found under wall paper in the old last standing cabin, in the form of old bank notes. So I started to read any and everything I could find on the place.
In it's Hay Day it was described rightly or wrongly as Granite City!
Well then I was in hook line and sinker. I just had to give something back to this forgotten place for all the pleasure it had brought to my wife, my friends and myself. The plaque would be replaced!
I could not find out what it had said originally, at that time, so more research was in order. Once I started looking it seemed that about anything I read of BC history around 1885 mentioned something about Granite City or Granite Creek. I hired a Gentleman that made headstones to make a new plaque. The quote to have it made was a bit much for just my wallet so I wrote a small report on the town and why it was important to replace it's identifying feature.
This I gave it to Friends, Family, Co workers, and other history buffs with a request for a ten dollar donation. These people are who I called the Friends of Granite City (you'll see that on the plaque) It's nice to see how many people visit the town site and now can appreciate a bit of it's History.
Hard to believe it was the third largest town in BC by population in it's hay day in 1886. It was mostly destroyed in a fire at the outbreak of WW1.
Miss Chicken ran a house of ill repute in the 30's. As late as the 1950's the town was home to three men named Bob in different cabins.
The standing cabin on the town site dates from the 1930's as a close inspection shows it to be made of Kettle Valley Railway ties. At night walk around the site, it's easy to go back to an earlier time.
The river still sounds the same, the moon still shines as bright, a cool breeze still comes down the valley, and if you listen just a bit more, you can hear a piano and the sound of men in high spirits.
If you go please enjoy and respect this Gold Rush Town. Give back by picking up some garbage left by others.
The Friends of Granite City with the monument replaced, are no more.
From ghosttowns.com:
The wild spot along Granite Creek was at one time the third largest city in the Province of British Columbia. Gold was discovered there in July of 1885 and by the end of the year the population exceeded two thousand, mostly miners looking for their "bonanza." By the end of October, $90,000 in gold had been mined and the population totalled almost a thousand.
By January of the next year, there were 40 houses, six saloons, several hotels and seven mercantile stores. The next year, 1886, was the year of peak production officially reported to be $193,000. No one doubts it was much higher. As the gold began to disappear, people began to move away to try their luck elsewhere. Fifteen years after gold was first discovered, Granite Creek was a ghost town.
BC Ghosttowns.com has a good video on YouTube.