The King Solomon Mine

The King Solomon Mine

By Brue Pollock

King Solomon Mines was a rather insignificant mine located near Shawnigan Lake that left a rather large name-sake legacy. From 1904 to 1907, this tiny mine near the Koksilah River produced enough copper ore to barely fill three rail cars - resulting in a total of 18,000kg of copper.

Although pretty well insignificant in the region's mining history, it was around long enough to have a local rail stop named after it - the Kinsol Station. When the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway undertook a massive project to provide a rail-route to bring timber from the west coast to markets in Victoria, they built the largest wooden trestle in the commonwealth and named it after the station - the Kinsol Trestle.

John Evans (my great great grandfather) was the MLA for Cowichan from 1903 to 1907. Years ago, I was researching his time in the provincial legislature by going back through the Journal of the House which was the precursor to today's Hansard record.

At one point in 1906, he asked the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works about work performed by Henry Fry who had laid out a new road from Cowichan Station to the King Solomon Mines and questioned why the road was not full width throughout. The government's reply was that the road was narrower in places “to avoid expense” and that the total cost of construction was $1,523.54.

c early 1900s - King Solomon Mine