The Story of Cathedral Mountain Lodge

Mt. Field (2638m, 8655 ft.) and Mt. Stephen (3199m, 10,495 ft.), surrounding Cathedral Mountain Lodge, are 3km east of Field, along Highway 1 on the way to Lake Louise, Alberta. On the lower slopes of these towering mountains are caves covered by grates. These caves are abandoned mine shafts that lead to "stopes", corridors where ore was mined and which provided air, light and an escape for run-off water. These holes are most easily seen from the Yoho Valley Road, which runs by Cathedral Mountain Lodge at the base of Mt. Field.

In 1884, construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway revealed lead and zinc ore in the talus at the bottom of Mt. Stephen. The deposits were in cliffs high above the tracks, in a streak of black rock called dolomite. The discovery prompted a small-scale mining operation, East Monarch Mine, the first metal producing mine in the Canadian Rockies. A few thousand tons of ore were mined before 1912. In 1916, larger and richer lead/zinc deposits were discovered 800m west, and the West Monarch Mine was established. Ten thousand tons of ore were mined in seven years, even though transportation methods were elementary. The ore was miraculously brought around the cliffs on a crude tramway. Claims were staked on Mt. Field in 1910 and the Black Prince Mine, later known as the Kicking Horse Mine, was founded, producing mainly zinc. Deposits on Mt. Field and Mt. Stephen have similar composition, suggesting that the two mountains were bridged by rock where the Kicking Horse valley now lies.

Base Metals Mining Corporation took over the Monarch Mines and Kicking Horse Mines in 1928, and made many advances in the mining operations. They installed an aerial tramway to transport the ore, established a mill, built housing and constructed a diesel-fuelled power plant capable of 1300 horsepower. Between 1931 and 1938 ore prices fluctuated and though the mines were often shut down, they were never closed for longer than a year. Monarch Mine extracted mainly lead and zinc, but enough silver and gold (delete reference to gold) were mined to pay for transporting the ore to the smelter. Mining the ore required specialized machinery. A series of drills were used to bore holes into the rock. Dynamite was placed into the holes to blast ore deposits out of the rock. An aerial tramway carried chunks of ore to bins which dumped onto crushers connected by conveyor belts. The ore was reduced to 1 cm sized bits, combined with water and cyanide and ground up by manganese steel balls in a ball mill. The cyanide helped reduce the ore to a fine powder in a muddy suspension. The ore was aerated and the dried concentrate was ready for shipping to the smelter in Trail, British Columbia.

During the war years business boomed and the price of lead was between 26 and 27 cents per pound. After the Second World War the price dropped to 11 cents per pound. When the lead deposits were exhausted, it was no longer profitable to mine only zinc and mining ceased in Yoho National Park in 1952. Mine entrances were sealed in 1976 to preserve artifacts inside the stopes and to protect unwary visitors from dangers inside the deteriorating mines.

Kicking Horse Campground was once the site of miners' living quarters. At the turn of the 20th century, increasing concern developed for the aesthetic value of the National Parks. Federal government views of the mineral rich mountains within Yoho National Park conflicted with Parks' mandate to preserve and protect the wilderness setting, including mineral reserves. In 1930, a new National Parks Act was passed prohibiting new mineral claims. Some claims, granted prior to 1930, such as those on Mt. Stephen and Mt. Field, were honoured by the Park and mining was allowed to continue for another 22 years. However, when the mines finally shut down in 1952, it was not due to legal or environmental pressure but simply because the mines were no longer profitable.