In September 2010, I received a letter in the mail from Earl Allum from Manitoba. He had been a diamond driller in his younger years, and had worked for Boyles Brothers Diamond Drilling at the Leduc Camp of the Granduc copper mine 3 times. I had worked there in 1975, and a photo I had posted online prompted his letter. He later sent me 3 photos from his collection - I've posted them below - cick on each to greatly enlarge them.

This photo shows Earl Allum on the left and Jimmy Murphy seated, with their surface drill high above Leduc Camp.

Jimmy Murphy on the left and Dale Langan on the right, with the Leduc Glacier in the background.

Compare the photo above to this one, shot in pre-dawn light by Murray Lundberg in 1975 when he was working at the mine as underground first aid attendant. This is the photo that prompted Earl's first leter to me.

Leduc Camp, built at the junction of the South and North Forks of the Leduc Glacier. Much of it had been destroyed, and 26 men killed, when an avalanche hit it in February 1965.

Earl also worked at the Hart River Mine in 1968 and 1969 for Rupert Drilling of Vancouver. Famous bush pilot Pat Callison flew him in and out of Hart River Camp. He has heard that a photo of him appeared in some publication. I expect that it was "Western Miner" magazine, whose photo collection is now in Special Collections at the University of British Columbia - it contains photos of both Granduc and the Hart River Mine. If any of you ever see the magazine or get into the collection, please pop me a note.

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Death Came Silently: the Granduc Mine Disaster

The Granduc Mine Avalanche - from "Avalanche Accidents in Canada: A Selection of Case Histories of Accidents, 1955 to 1976" by C. J. Stethem and P. A. Schaerer, National Research Council Canada, February 1979

A Guide to Stewart, British Columbia