Granite City is a ghost town in the Similkameen region of British Columbia, Canada.
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A prospector named Johnny Chance discovered gold in Granite Creek in 1885. The discovery of gold led to the creation of a mining camp called Granite in 1885. As the number of miners grew the camp became known as Granite City. Granite City lay deep in the remote Tulameen country of southern British Columbia. By 1886 Granite City contained 300 European prospectors and 100 Chinese. On April 21,1886 the newspaper called the Victoria Colonist reported Granite City had "9 general stores,14 hotels and restaurants,2 jewelers,3 bakers,3 blacksmiths,2 livery stables,a shoemaker, butcher, chemist, attorney, doctor and 8 pack trains owned in the city. 200 buildings occupy the two main streets - Government and Granite."[1] Granite was regarded as one of the largest cities in British Columbia. The town never contained a school or church. The jail did not have bars on the windows. The windows were one foot square.
On April 4,1907 most of the town was destroyed by a fire.[1]
By 1915 the gold rush was over and Granite City lay deserted. The depression of the 1930s brought drifters to Granite City hoping to eek out a living on the placer gold creeks of the past. By the time the depression came to an end only a handful of miners lived at Granite City. By the 1960s the last of these miners in Granite City had passed on and Granite City became a ghost town of British Columbia. Some log buildings stand on the original site. [2]
British Columbia Historian Bill Barlee reports the story of a Scandinavian by the name of Johanssen. Johanssen recovered a reported 300 ounces of platinum from Granite Creek, British Columbia. Johanssen is reported to have buried his cache of platinum in a bucket south of his cabin and visible from the cabin door. Granite City was destroyed by a fire in 1907. Johanssen's cabin was levelled by the fire. With the cabin lost so was the location as to where the cache was. The platinum cache is reported to still be there, close to $50,000 in platinum buried somewhere in Granite City.[1]
Granite City was featured on the historical television series Gold Trails and Ghost Towns, Season 1, Episode 11.