In 1891, an elderly indigenous man (whose name today is mostly spelled Slumach) was hanged in New Westminster, British Columbia for murdering a man called Louis Bee. Myth links Slumach to a fabled bonanza known as Slumach's Gold, Lost Creek Gold, the Lost Creek Mine, or the Lost Mine of Pitt Lake. Click here to read a summary of the story of Slumach and his supposed connection to the legendary gold of Pitt Lake.
Around 1900, stories started emerging in the press about gold found by an indigenous man in the impenetrable mountains around Pitt Lake. In 1915, an American prospector named Armstrong connected Slumach to this legendary Pitt Lake bonanza. Armstrong's story is the archetype of the Pitt Lake gold legend repeated ever since by oldtimers. journalists, and authors in their versions of the tale.
This site, created by Fred Braches in 2007, provides source material on Slumach and other real or imagined characters and features of the "Lost Creek Mine" stories. There are, for instance, transcripts of legal records, and newspaper and magazine articles about the Pitt Lake bonanza.
For the results of Fred Braches's research on the Pitt Lake legends, read his book Searching for Pitt Lake Gold. For other information read Slumach's Gold: In Search of a Legend – and a Curse (heritagehouse.ca, fall 2024 by Brian Antonson, Mary Trainer, and Rick Antonson. Both were published by Heritage House Publishing, Victoria, British Columbia.
Fred Braches passed away in 2024. At his request, slumach.ca is now owned and managed by Brian Antonson, Mary Trainer, and Rick Antonson who intend to keep the site as is. If you use information from this site, we would appreciate your acknowledging slumach.ca as your source. Your contributions, messages, comments, corrections, and recommendations are welcome and will be considered. Feel free to put a link to this site on your website.
The award winning TV series Deadman’s Curse, and the Deadman’s Curse Podcast continue to profile Slumach.
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