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'Deadman's Curse' hits home on Harrison Lake

History Channel explorers search north Harrison Lake shores for gold

Perhaps Slumach's legendary gold is closer than we might think.

History Channel's "Deadman's Curse" recently wrapped up its second season as a team of four 鈥 Chilliwack mountaineer Adam Palmer, Port Coquitlam prospector Kru Williams, Seabird Island elder Don Froese and Taylor Starr, researcher and great-neice of Slumach 鈥 searched for Slumach's gold on the north end of Harrison Lake. 

While exploring the Pitt Lake area for clues to a legendary gold mine reportedly worth billions, the explorers are redirected to Harrison Lake thanks to clues from ancient pictographs and through Starr's research.

Back in the mid 1950s, journalist Donna Russell investigated legends of Spanish gold on Harrison Lake. According to legend, a series of white-sailed boats crossed a lake in the heart of B.C. Spanish explorers allegedly mined gold from a landslide along the lake. roese confirmed there are accounts from the area First Nations corroborating the sight of white-sailed boats on Harrison Lake. In her story, Russell believed the slide to be on the shores of Harrison Lake. 

Believing Slumach could've discovered the gold on the north shores of Harrison Lake, the explorers find themselves on Mount Breakenridge, a peak in the Lillooet ranges towering 2,300 metres above Harrison Lake. They spent days descending to a landslide where the mouth of the mine may be, but conditions took their toll on Starr, and she had to be flown home. Froese went with her. 

Williams and Palmer found tailings along the landslide, debris typically left over from mining operations, in addition to a potential entrance to the mine with traces of charcoal, further lending credence to the theory that the Spanish mined in the area.

As Starr recovered, she and her cousin, Rain Pierre, ultimately found where Slumach may have been buried 鈥 in an unmarked grave in a prison cemetery in New Westminster, far from his home Katzie territory. As they walk from the grave, Starr and Pierre are determined to bring Slumach's spirit home. 

Near Harrison Lake, Williams and Palmer are unable to pan any gold from nearby water sources. Wiliams uncovers an old metal spike designed to hold down an rail track 鈥 possibly indicating the once-presence of mine carts. Williams races uphill, shouting to Palmer that he's found it. 

The second season of "Deadman's Curse" ends with a cliffhanger as Palmer and Williams find themselves at the mouth of what appears to be a mine, complete with remnants of a mine cart track, just as winter conditions closed in.



Adam Louis

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