Anyox

Anyox was a small company-owned mining town in British Columbia, Canada. Today it is a ghost town, largely destroyed and abandoned. It is located about 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest of Stewart, British Columbia on the shores of Observatory Inlet, near the tip of the Alaska Panhandle.

In 1914 Anyox had grown to a population of almost 3,000 residents, as a major mine and smelter were put into operation; rich lodes of copper and other precious metals were mined from the nearby mountains. Situated on Observatory Inlet, Anyox was a Granby Company town, as that firm moved interests from Greenwood. Copper was mined from Hidden Creek and Bonanza deposits and smelted on site. Coal to fuel the smelter was shipped from Union Bay on Vancouver Island and Fernie in southeastern British Columbia.

It was a very large operation with railways, machine shops, curling rink, and a golf course. In the early 1920s concrete pioneer and dam engineer John S. Eastwood designed a hydroelectric dam that stood, at 156 feet (48 m), as the tallest dam in Canada for many years. Ocean steamers connected the area to Prince Rupert and Vancouver. Anyox was almost wiped out by forest fires in 1923, but the townsite was rebuilt and mining operations continued at the nearby Granby Mine. Acid rain from the plant denuded the trees from the hillsides which soon became bare.

The high costs and low copper prices finished the town in the Depression and population of workers shrank to nothing. The mine shut down in 1935, and the town was abandoned. Some building shells still exist at Anyox but are in poor condition. Salvage operations in the 1940s removed most machinery and steel from the town, and a forest fire burned all remaining wood structures.

Attempts to rehabilitate the dam are currently underway and active mineral exploration continues in the area.

The recent rise in the price of copper, and the Observatory Inlet's history, has made it a more attractive target for re-development.

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