Greenwood Smelter From the Flue looking up to the Smoke Stack - September 09, 2010.

After a brisk walk up the flue from the furnaces below, looking up at the Smelter Smoke Stack.

Some Greenwood History Notes:

February 18, 1901 marked the blowing in of the first furnace. The smelter was open 24 hours a day and employing 47 men during the first year. That year 106000 tonnes of ore was smelted. On January 18, 1902 a record amount , 416 tonnes, (about 9 tonnes for every man employed, were smelted. The smelter operated very successfully until 1912 when shortages of ore began to affect production. Throughout World War l the smelter worked intermittently at a reduced rate and on November 26, 1918 closed forever. The plant was sold to Leon Lotzkar who disposed of the machinery and later gave the site to the City of Greenwood as a park.

The smelter was originally built with a sheet steel smokestack that was replaced by the present brick stack when the works were expanded in 1904. The brick stack was originally 36 meters, the highest in the province, and contained nearly 250000 bricks.

Waste slag was taken from the smelter by rail in 25-ton (23-tonne) bell-shaped slag cars, and dumped nearby. The waste slag glowed red in the night during the smelter's heyday, but it is now a black moonscape. A visitor can walk on this once molten pile of black glass and step inside some of the "hell's bells"! One can also visit the foundations of the furnaces and machinery now quiet among the encroaching undergrowth.

The mines that supplied the Greenwood Smelter were the Mother Lode, BC Mine, Emma Mine and many others in the immediate region

Greenwood, BC, the smallest city in Canada is on Highway #3, located in the west Boundary area between the Okanagan valley and West Kootenays in southern British Columbia Canada. Greenwood was incorporated in 1897 and was the hub of gold mining exploration in the Boundary region. Between its colorful mining history, beautiful heritage buildings and industrial ruins Greenwood has a great deal to offer tourists who come to visit.
Greenwood's historical sites and heritage buildings make this Boundary Area city a great place for tourists as well as the casual visitor. Adding to Greenwoods great culture mix are the 1200 Japanese Canadians relocated for interment at the start of World War II. Many of whom stayed after the war and continued living in and enriching the Greenwood area.

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