Alaska 2015 - Day 62 - Kimberley BC

Day 62 – 7-12-15 Sunday We drove into Kimberley to attend the Medieval Festival activities and went to the Snowdrift Cafe to try their lattes and cinnamon buns. The lattes were as good as the one we got in Skagway and finally got one in a real cup. The cinnamon buns were okay – nothing “to write home about”.

Yummy

Fountain

Mural on side of building

The Medieval Activities had not started yet so we walked the pedestrian mall and checked out the few craft vendors that were open. Lena bought a pair of homemade bedroom slippers that the lady made from hand-spun wool with leather soles. I noticed she had an accent so I ask her where she was from originally. She moved from Belgium in 1996 – the year we moved to Germany. We went to a bakery and got some pastries to take with us for later. We saw one man that was dressed in medieval clothing and he was demonstrating how silver coins were made in medieval times, using two dies and a large hammer. He gave a very informative take on the history of coin making in medieval times.

Spinning wool from Red Goats

Making Medieval Coins

About 10:30AM several men dressed in medieval battle-ware did a short talk and then announced that a battle was about to take place, so the crowd followed them to the local sports field. They had several tents with beds set up like what might have been used in a medieval village. Probably a dozen men dressed for battle came on the field. They had spears, battle axes, knives, swords, shields, bows and arrows and where ready for battle.

Most were wearing metal helmets with face shields and chain-mell like a warrior might have worn during those times. We have attended these type of activities in Germany but the warriors today were really going at it much more aggressive that what we have ever seen. They were fighting each other with spears, swords, knives, etc. They were wearing the protective battle gear and even though the weapons were all real they explained that they practice a long time to be able to put on the battles without hurting each other too much. The edges and points on the weapons are dull to prevent getting cut. To get all the kids involved the warriors gave them pieces of pipe insulation to serve as a sword and let the kids fight them. The kids were having a great time.

We walked back to the Snowdrift Cafe and got some take out lunch and went to The Sullivan Mine Depot a short distance away to get tickets for the train ride and tour of the underground mine that was started in 1898. The train took us underground into the mine. When we got into the mine we got off the train and Bill Roberts met us. He had worked in this mine for 35 years. He gave us a very detail explanation of how the mine operated and demonstrated some of the actual mining equipment. He explained about how they drilled the holes into the rock to set the explosives and how about the safety equipment they used. He took us into one of the safe rooms that was used in case of an emergency in the mine. We got back on the train and went to the power house where Bill met us again and explained the equipment that was used to generate compressed air that was used in the mine to run the drills. The machine was massive. He had a young boy in the group turn it on and everyone was amazed at how quiet this massive machine was. We could hardly hear it running.

Train Engineer

Entering the mine

Holes drilled ready to blast

Bill Roberts (miner guide)

Using air powered drill

Safety equipment

Air compressor equipment

Bill Roberts (mine guide) and Lena

He explained about the work being done to cleanup and reclaim the acres of land the mine used to store all the bad stuff that came from the mining operation. I read later in some literature we picked up they have also built a sunmine (solar panels) on some of the land that is supposed to come online this month. It will produce enough to power 200 homes and they have room to expand into the larges sunmine in the world.

Sullivan Mine Founders

After returning to the depot we purchased Bill's book that he authored about the mine and the stories of the men who worked it. Then we went back to the campground to relax for awhile before coming back to the Plazel to get some stone fired pizza at Stonefire Pizza. The pizza oven was hand made in Naples Italy. Wood is used to generate the heat. We were introduced to stone fired pizza in Naples when I went there to work while living in Germany. We really like it and the one we got today was excellent.

Wood fired pizza oven

We saw several mule deer today around the edge of town and along the train tracks. On the road to the campground are several bushes hanging full of berries. We saw a lady picking a few yesterday when we came in so we stopped and ate a few but didn't know what they were. They look very similar to a wild huckleberry but are about 4 times larger. They were good but didn't taste exactly like a huckleberry or a blueberry. We picked a few and took to town today and ask a lady in one of the shops what they were. She said they were saskatoon berries. She said there were eatable but to be careful picking them because the bears like them also. After some research on the Internet I found out that they have became so popular in Canada that some people are raising them on farms and selling them commercially. Some are exported to the USA but the USA market calls them Juneberries since they thought that was a better name for marketing them.