Mica Embankment Dam On The Big Bend In BC - A Gold Rush, Lost Highway & Power Generation Complex 

Great Video. I lived in Mica from 1970 to 1973 and was a kid in grade 3 to 5. The village had everything then including a movie theatre, Co-op grocery store, gas station and Church. Half the town was a workers camp with double story bunkhouses and the other half was prefab houses for the managers and foreman and engineers with families. We lived on a man made island in the river 5 km south of the village called South City which was a 100 pad mobile home park. Winter 1972 there was a record snowfall of 42 feet of snow and we shovelled up and off the roof to reduce the snow load. The 68 Oldsmobile was gone until spring when the grader missed it by inches trying to find it. Dad was an engineer who designed the form work for all the big concrete pours for the spillway gates, spillway with it's ski jump terminus and the diversion tunnel gates to the penstocks that were built inside the mountain. I took my wife there in 1992 and you could tour right inside the powerhouse and even into the spinning shafts inspection room that was between the Francis turbine and the generator head. Two were fat and Russian and two were Japanese and skinny. They installed 5 and 6 in 2014 and they were German made and the most efficient. In 2012 we went up there again and it was a Sunday in summer and we saw one car on the way up. The tours were no longer available, so we had a picnic behind the Mica Dam near a boat ramp. And 100 metres away was a guy playing fetch a stick with a big German Shepard who came out of nowhere. We figured later that was a security guy because we were such a threat having a picnic in our Honda Element. On the way back we stopped at a view point at the base of the dam, but nobody had trimmed the trees to get the view. But someone had left a pile of rocks full of Mica to chip off a piece for a souvenir for making the 320 km trip. We surmised what happened in NY in the early 2000's was to blame for the heightened security as opposed to the cool tour we experienced in 1992. The spot behind the dam at the boat ramp is a really cool view where you see the Rockies across Kinbasket lake, the Monashees to the left and the Selkirks behind you which you can not see but they are big and beautiful. That was the big bend and when I was there in the 70's was called Boat Encampment. Explorers David Thompson made it through there using the Athabasca pass which is sort of close by there. I have many great memories of the area and recommend to anybody to take a day and explore something that most do not know even exists. Enjoy and thanks for bringing back the memories.

When I came from Ontario too the Yukon in 1957 we traveled the Big Bend,in a 1946 ford ,with family mom ,dad ,4 of us kids and a dog. Camped all the way.Was a trip I'll always remember. Our destination was a place called Keno Hill in the Yukon. Thanks for a bit of history. I'm 78 yrs old now,still going strong.

My father and my uncle helped build the Mica dam back in 1967 when they started to build it I was 1 years old. They worked on it for 4 years. Until my uncle was driving up to get there and got in a fatal accident with a moose. My father never went back. I still have pieces of Mica till this day that he brought back with him.

Hi, great to see this video about the Big Bend. I traveled the Big Ben with my family (mom, dad, & my brother) in the early 1960's and we were pulling a small travel trailer. I remember it being very narrow with a wall of rock on one side and a drop on the other side of the road. It was very scarey. There were some very rickety bridges we crossed. We were traveling from Ontario to British Columbia and back visiting family. Great memories though. Thanks so much for great video!

My dad worked on the dam back in '72-'73. Got pics of us in our trailer in the village and with lots of heavy equipment! Cool stuff, thank you!😎👍👍🙏🙏🍻

Fresh out of University (UNB) with a degree in Forestry (IP) worked for the BC Forest Service as an Engineer in Training. We lived in Donald Station in a trailer but worked out of the Bush River camp involved in clearing for the head pond. I was on my 1st forest fire up the Bush River the 1st night, with huge cedars and popular exploding over our heads. This was the summer of 1970.

Beautiful country up there, lived and worked in Mica for a few years as a Chef catering to the BC Hydro crew. Miss that place.

Thanks, It brings back memories.

I worked on the Micro Creek Fire in '72 or '73 got pulled off a freight train in Revelstoke was given the choice of 30 days for railroad trespass or go fight the fire. Was transported up the old gravel road to Mica with a bunch of other long hairs, was there for six weeks. Spectacular.

You forgot to mention that in addition to the road being steep, narrow and winding it was also gravel so in the spring and during periods of wet weather, it was also muddy. Most cars and trucks back in the day in addition to having manual transmissions were colum shift (AKA 3 on a tree) and had manual steering (no power assist) and manual brakes (no power assist drum brakes). Imagine what a scary experience that would have been to drive the old Big Bend Highway in a vehicle like that ! An old highway map I have says that the Big Bend Highway was also closed during winter. There was a place at the apex of the big bend called "Boat Encampment". From what I have been able to find online, this was a historical site. It was where explorer David Thompson camped over the winter in order to construct a boat to trvel further down the Columbia River. The Boat Encampment historical site was inundated after the Mica Dam was built and the river valley behind it started filling up.

I worked there from 2009 to 2016 on the Mica 5-6 project. many fond memories but the visitor's center was long gone even by then. They just did not have the traffic to justify keeping it open but there is one at the Revelstoke dam

I worked on the tunnels and later on the river bottom excavations. Used to take me 90 minutes from the camp at the dam to Hwy 1 intersection at Revelstoke. My wheels was ‘64 Ford Galaxy XL 500 with a 390 ci. I usually had to stop at the service station in Revelstoke to lets the two older dudes use the can. They always complained that that portion of the trip was too hard on their sphincter muscle.

My grandfather drove from Regina to revelstoke on Friday night to build a resort in revelstoke and back on Sunday night so the children could be in school for Monday morning. In the 50s this must have been a crazy journey, don’t make people like this anymore more. Thanks for the video

Hi, I also worked on Mica Dam and Revelstoke dam as a Ironworker .

Very fascinating! I’m not certain how old I was, maybe 10-12 (1972-74) but it was when my father, who worked for the first aid section at WCB (as it was called back then-now called ‘work safe’) did safety inspections at industrial work sites. He brought me there (a stop on our holiday) as a dam supervisor walked us into the dam on one of the hill sides prior to the water rushing through the turbines. It hadn’t quite been complete at the time but it was close. We saw the turbines from below, maybe around 20-30ft. Of course consider that it was around 52 yrs ago, so I may have my distance off. That’s all I remember, but it made a hell of an impression on me, big time. I think I remember the big snow drop of 1972, but I’m not certain if we’d been there yet, but it was in the news, and particularly regarding Mica. I really didn’t appreciate the enormity of the project back then, but since I’ve been itching to go back there. I’m glad that vids like these are available. This is the first one I’ve seen regarding this subject on BC history but it’s very intriguing and a blast from the past. Keep up the good work!

Thanx for the tour ..its been a few years since I rode motorcycles up n down that road just for the thrill of corners and scenery. BC is one first class natural wonder.

Thanks for the history and rd trip

I went over the Big Bend road as a child with my grandparents. It was steep, dusty and slow going on a rough gravel road This was in the 50's

Great narrative, the mighty Columbia River! This was a wonderful road trip .

I worked at Boat Encampment as a waitress-maid around 1956…I was 14…almost 70 years ago…the Greyhound buses used to go through…our wages were very low and we depended on tips…some people would stay at the cabins…if we were lucky the tourists would be American…they tipped very well…

FYI... there was a bunch of US dollars put into Castlegar and Mica dams. My brother in law was on the hydo line projects on both Mica and Revy dams.

Worked on the dam…we came there from working on the Bennet Dam at Hudson Hope

Yes I remember most of this.

Good luck

People would stop for gas there…it was really just a small restaurant, some gas pumps and a few cabins…right on the edge of nowhere.

As the indigenous point out only the whiteman is stupid enough to build a community on a flood plain. So yes there was water flowing into the U.S.A. from Canada via the Columbia River but there were rivers on the U.S.A. side that also contributed to the flooding. Ain't all our fault as you implied. Highway up to Mica I believe you missed one of the most important parts and I don't know why you didn't show video of the boat launches. There was two roads build to Mica. The first was built during the construction of the Mica Dam and was down lower close to the river. This road was paved with centre lines and fog lines. That is why you will notice that boat launch sites have a centre line and fog line running into the water. Nice to have a paved launch site into the lake. When the construction of the Revelstoke Dam started a large portion of the rebuilt Big Ben Highway that was rebuilt and paved for the Mica Dam would be underwater when the Revelstoke Dam started to fill. So a new road was constructed higher up the slope to be above the flood line. This paved road eventually was submerged. At the Downie Loop is another place you can see where the old Big Ben and the rebuilt Big Ben cut straight across. Boat Encampment is underwater. I believe there is a monument above the water mark saying it was where the community existed. There is also a park a short distance from there. Both sides of the Columbia River (Revelstoke Lake) have logging roads and at the right time there is company barges transporting logging trucks and crew vehicles across the lake. Past Boat Encampment on the north side you can still find evidence of the Big Ben Highway. Pretty well over grown now but it is interesting to be walking along a trail and spot a highway sign. This is mainly between Wood and Cummins. The road is not maintained by B.C. Hydro. It is part of the B.C. Highway system and maintained by the local contractor. You probably noticed the limited traffic on the road which is the main reason the lines are still visible. As you have seen even the main highways by time spring rolls around have sporadic road markings. I travelled the Big Ben in 1952 as a 12 year old kid. One of my main memories was where one of the slides had been cut through. There was a massive wall going straight up for several metres. From my memory the most rugged part of the road was not the Big Ben but a short section out of Golden through the Kicking Horse Canyon. Should mention I remember the mosquitoes were extremely friendly.

Worked on both Mica and Revelstoke dams. Built with Money from US. Dumbest thing B.C. every did. All the power belongs the American power interests.

Don’t quit your day job I’m not impressed

Shhhhh why you showing all these people ???? Turn it off. Go home don't comeback.

Rite on thx for the tour i just finished the revelstoke to vernon tour.and i thought that was quiet.norths a whole dif tour thx again

I worked at Boat Encampment as a waitress-maid around 1956…I was 14…almost 70 years ago…the Greyhound buses used to go through…our wages were very low and we depended on tips…some people would stay at the cabins…if we were lucky the tourists would be American…they tipped very well…