PHOENIX

PHOENIX

Is a ghost town, located just 11 kilometers east of Greenwood in the Boundary Region of British Columbia. It was home to massive copper mine, which was built in 1891 by a prospector named Bob Denzler, and at 4,630 feet above sea level, Phoenix soon laid to claim as the “highest city in Canada”. In its heyday, Phoenix had a peak population of 4,000 residents, and had a collection of hotels, banks, its own city hall, newspaper office, telephone services, hospital, and even had a ballroom. Phoenix even had its own hockey team, which won the provincial hockey championship in 1911, but failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup, when it was already too late to ask to qualify for the event. The Copper Mine had its own tramline that shipped ore from the mine to the nearby Granby Smelter outside of Grand Forks through 2 competing railways; the Canadian Pacific and the Great Northern Railways and produced well over 13,000,000 tonnes of ore. The quality of copper ore reserves deteriorated just before the start of the First World War (WWI), but continued to operate because of high demand of copper during the war. However, in 1919 it closed down for good due to dropping and dwindling copper prices and that the Granby Smelting and Smelting shifted its focus of copper on its Anyox Mine in Northern British Columbia just south of Stewart. After its declaration as a ghost town all of the buildings including several churches, hospital and other buildings were moved to other communities such as Grand Forks and Greenwood. Phoenix operated an open pit mine during the 1950s until 1978, until it was abandoned and pretty much all of the other historic buildings were either destroyed or bulldozed. Phoenix is home to small ski resort found nearby and has a total of 12 different runs for beginners and expert skiers.