Nickel Plate Mountain claims were first staked in 1894 but it wasn't until 1899 that the mountain had the first producing lode (vein of metal ore) on the Similkameen. By 1899, the area was covered with claims and the town of Hedley (named for R. R. Hedley, manager of the smelter at Nelson) began to develop.

Prospector Duncan Woods arrived in Hedley after much of Nickel Plate Mountain had already been claimed, but he noticed a small, 40-acre portion had been missed. He claimed the land and named the fraction Mascot. In 1904 the Daly Reduction Company which operated the Nickel Plate Mine discovered that their main ore body angled into the claim that Woods had made and the superintendent, Gomer P. Jones, approached Woods to purchase it. Woods refused to sell then and as long as Jones was involved. However, Woods finally did sell his claim to a group from Vancouver and in 1933 they formed Hedley Mascot Gold.

In 1909 a New York company took over the Nickel Plate Mine, and a branch line of the Great Northern Railway was pushed through to Hedley. Between 1904 and 1930, when production lapsed briefly, 1.3 million tons of ore from Nickel Plate were mined and milled. Production at Nickel Plate Mine started again in 1932 when the mine was bought by the John W. Mercer Exploration Co. In 1937, a "mile-high" company town was built on top of Nickel Plate Mountain. It later became a ghost town when the mine closed.

Just after it opened in 1936, the Hedley Mascot Mine ran into difficulties when rumours about its operation caused a severe stock decline. A Government investigation discovered that ore samples from the mine had been "salted" and the public had been given false information. The mine was taken over by the provincial government and one of the officials prosecuted. In 1955, the mine was officially closed.

The Mascot Gold Mine operated from 1936 to 1949. During this time 7.1 tonnes of gold was taken out. Ore from the mine was transported down the mountain to a mill on the valley floor using an aerial tramline. After the mine closed the buildings and tramway fell into dereliction.

From the 1950s through to 1986 the mines on Nickel Plate Mine Mountain were inactive. Then Mascot Gold Mines Ltd. began production from an open pit mine in 1987. Homestake Mining Company of San Francisco took over the ownership in 1992, but by 1996 ore reserves were exhausted and the company started to wind down its operations on Nickel Plate Mountain.

In the 1990s, the British Columbia government was going to burn the site down because it posed a safety risk, but Hon. Bill Barlee, then Minister of Tourism, intervened and, in 1995 allocated about $740,000 to assemble the various portions of the site and start a stabilization program on the wooden structures and decking. In 1998, following a public bidding process, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band (USIB) was given a contract to manage the site. Later, title to the site was transferred to the USIB which created the Snaza’ist Discovery Centre in Hedley to interpret the mine site and serve as a place to conduct tours to the mine, located almost one mile high overlooking Hedley. The USIB’s goal is to turn the Hedley Mascot Gold Mine into a major heritage tourism destination along Highway 3 and to create jobs for the USIB and for the wider community.

Resources:

Snaza’ist Discovery Centre web site (operators of tours to Hedley Mascot Gold Mine): http://www.mascotmine.com/

Doug Cox, Mines of the Eagle Country: Nickel Plate & Mascot, Skookum Publications, 1997.