Mount Sicker

Harry Smith named the new strike Lenora, after his married daughter.[5] In 1904, Lenora Richards (also part owner of Richard III), and Thomas Sullins' wife and children, drowned in the S.S. Clallam sinking. Thomas survived.[7][8]

In fall 1897, Harry Smith established the Lenora, Mt. Sicker and BC Development Co. To provide investment capital, Henry Croft, brother-in-law of James Dunsmuir, bought a majority shareholding in spring 1898. Reorganized as Lenora, Mt. Sicker Copper Mining Co., Croft became the manager.[6][9] By January 1900, the Lenora mine was the fourth largest shipper of ore in BC.[9][10] Mining ceased in late 1902 when the company went into receivership.[11] During 1905, small scale operations resumed until the mine closure the following year.[12] In 1907, the mine was reactivated by the Vancouver Copper Co, which went bankrupt that year.[13]

A townsite was laid out northwest of the mining tunnel, and by 1899, contained a general store, school, stable and home sites.[9] In 1900, lots in the townsite development were sold.[10] In early 1901, the 18-room Mt. Sicker Hotel[14] and 40-pupil schoolhouse opened.[15] In 1907, the hotel closed, and the contents sold by sheriff's sale over the following two years.[16] In due course, the townsite buildings were offered for sale at $8 for the hotel and $2 for the cottages.[17]

In 1900, a daily Lenora–Westholme stage commenced.[10] A wagon road, horse tramway, and then a narrow-gauge railway provided the initial link with the company siding on the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N), immediately southwest of the Westholme station.[9] The ore travelled by rail to Ladysmith, and by boat to the smelter at Vananda (now Van Anda) on Texada Island.[18] By 1901, the ore went to the Tacoma smelter.[19] In 1902, the company extended its railway line to Crofton for processing ore at its new smelter.[20] (see Lenora Mt. Sicker Railway).

In spring 1897, Smith and Buzzard, also staked the Tyee claim, several hundred feet higher than Lenora.[5][6] The most promising of several claims, the Tyee Development Co. was established, but acquired by the Tyee Copper Co in April 1900.[21] Production peaked in 1905, being the largest copper producer on the BC coast. By 1907, production had fallen dramatically, and the mine closed.[17]

By 1901, the Tyee had its own townsite,[10] and Brenton Hotel by the fall.[14] The total Mt. Sicker population was reaching 2,000, making it the fourth largest on Vancouver Island.[15]

In October 1900, a 2.4-metre (8 ft) wide wagon road opened from Somenos.[14] From the E&N station, the ore went to Ladysmith, then Tacoma. In October 1902, the company opened a 5.3 kilometres (3.3 mi) aerial tramway to carry half-ton buckets of ore from the mine to a 200-ton capacity ore bin at its E&N siding[22] about 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) south of the Lenora mine one.[11]

Comprising the longest single section in the world, the tramway dropped 580 metres (1,900 ft), and had a 5,000-ton-monthly capacity.[23] In 1902, the company opened its own smelter west of Ladysmith, with the concentrate going to Tacoma for final processing.[11]