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This page last updated July 24, 2004

The Wright and Johnsen cabin on the Tulameen River just downstream from the mouth of Granite Creek. I came upon it in the late 1970s when camping on the bank across the river and exploring along the creek.Lois Ridley wrote in 2004 to say that it is the old Paradise Mine Claim cabin that has been in her family for more than 75 years. "I believe that the cabin and shed were already on the property when my great uncle - George Aldus - took over the claim. Uncle George then left the claim to his sister, my Grandmother - Violet Johnsen - and in turn when she passed away it was handed down to her sons Ð Johnsen - and daughter Ð married name Wright. To this day as a family we still hold the placer and mineral rights to the claim."

The watercolour above is from 1989, the one below from 2001

Interesting area because of the Granite Creek gold rush of 1885, when there were between 400 and 500 Europeans and 150-200 Chinese on the creek. Seven stores, two restaurants, two saloons and a butcher's opened, plus a trail opened up through the Nicola Valley to avoid the tough canyon slog along the Tulameen. Most of the population had disappeared by 1888.

There is still constant gold panning and "hydraulicking" going on along the Tulameen, including a couple of people working the sandbar directly in front of this cabin on the day I painted it in 2001.

Photograph by "Nichols," 1954, the cabins gradually subsiding into the landscape like totem poles in the abandoned coastal villages