Empress of India
The Empress of India is in the McIntyre Creek valley just east of the Copper Haul Road. This is an area of rugged terrain, impressive cliffs, colourful rocks, and thick vegetation. Three small old adits exist in the valley near the main Empress of India mine, and several other mines in the immediate area make for an interesting single visit. Despite its magnificent name, the Empress of India was never large producer of copper.
The name Empress of India comes from the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of India that operated in the Pacific about the time this mine was named.
Chronology
- 1907: little work done but there was lots of optimism for the future
- 1916: shipped 30 tons (27,000 kg) of ore
- Whitehorse businesswoman Klondike Kate Ryan (story, bio) may have had some connection with this mine, perhaps as an investor.
Access
You can access this area via the Copper Haul Road. Park at POI 1 (below) and follow the trail down to the valley bottom.
You might want to visit three other areas in this vicinity in the same trip: Spring Creek, Grafter, and Best Chance/Retribution.
Points of interest
The map below shows some points of interest (POIs) in the Empress of India area. The table that follows gives more info for each POI.
| POI | Description | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | access point | 60.67496 -135.12508 493166 6726590 |
This point on the Copper Haul Road is the start of a steep, winding trail that leads down to the floor of the McIntyre Creek valley. This is the easiest access to the other POIs. Partway down the trail you will find a coil of thick wire rope. This may be some remnant of some system for transporting things up and down between the Empress of India mine and the railway above, which ran along today's Copper Haul Road. |
| 2 | Empress of Ireland adit | 60.67553 -135.12431 493208 6726653 |
As soon as you arrive on the floor of the valley, move left (north) about 10 m and look back up the hill. You'll see the waste rock plume from the Empress of Ireland mine. The Empress of Ireland claim is a small triangular area shoe-horned into an overlooked area between other claims, which seemed quite promising in the first decade of the 1900s. The person who staked it probably expected to cash in. Unfortunately, the mine produced no more than limestone. WARNING: Do not enter the adit. |
| 3 | Empress of India adits | 60.67600 -135.12349 493253 6726706 |
This is the main Empress of India work on the east side of McInytre Creek. You can cross the creek on a beaver dam that is somewhat to the north of the foot of the trail from POI 1 and the adit of POI 2. Explore around the opening to this mine. You will find old bits of hardware in the area. WARNING: Do not enter the adit. Just to the right (south) of the main adit, there is a second smaller adit that is collapsed. A short distance farther to the south, there is an old log structure in the bush. There is also an impressive greenish rock wall on the cliff face that had another adit at its base. |
| 4 | Empress of India trenching | 60.67603 -135.12298 493281 6726709 |
Head up the left side of the adit in POI 3 to the trenching on top the cliff. You might find lots of interesting green (malachite) and blue (azurite) rocks in this area. |
| 5 | recent excavation | 60.67754 -135.12371 493241 6726878 |
Someone has been digging in this area that is right on the edge of a steep, dry valley between the Empress of India and the adjacent Spring Creek area. Lots of azurite in this area. With a bit of care just to the east of this point, you can go down the cliff into the dry valley and up into the Spring Creek area. There is no need to scale cliffs. Just use the steep, plant-covered areas between the rock faces. | 6 | trenching on top of cliff | 60.67638 -135.12426 493211 6726748 |
probably part of Empress of Inda work | 7 | collapsed adit | 60.67617 -135.12435 493206 6726725 |
probably part of Empress of Inda work |
Downloads
| POIs for GPS | map for GPS |
|---|---|
| file of POIs in GPS format for this project and all others in the Whitehorse Copper Belt that you can download | GPS map for this project that you can download |
Photos and more info
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Wire rope beside the trail on the way down to the valley floor from POI 1. |
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POI 2. Empress of Ireland adit. This looks pretty precarious. Like any of these old adits, you should not enter. |
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POI 2. Empress of Ireland adit, close up. You probably couldn't enter even if you wanted to. |
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POI 2. Empress of Ireland adit. This video © 2020 Elizabeth MacDonald. |
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POI 3. Plume of waste rock in front of the Empress of India adit. You may find many interesting rocks, bits of hardware, and timbers from mine infrastructure in the area. |
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POI 3. Portal of the Empress of India mine. |
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POI 3. Portal of the Empress of India mine, close up. |
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POI 3. Empress of India mine, zoom in. This video © 2020 Elizabeth MacDonald. |
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POI 3. Possible location of second adit just to the right (south) of the main Empress of India portal. |
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POI 3. Colourful rock wall just to the south of the Empress of India portal. There was digging at the base of this wall, possibly another adit. |
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POI 4. Trenching on the top of the cliff above the Empress of India mine. The potential for finding interesting rocks here is good. |
TimmiT History Exploration Notebook