It could be that the naming of the mountain and the mine was a serendipitous case of separate parties deciding on the same name for separate features in a similar area.
Alternate spellings: MacDonald Creek
The creek name acknowledges McDonald’s brief presence in the creek valley, and is the most enduring record that survives of the mineral claims he staked there.
Giant Mine, Silver Giant Mine, Giant Mascot Mine
Mining…at the Giant Mascot continued from 1951 until 1957 at a somewhat frenzied pace, and the entire operation was toted as a “‘Giant’ success story”.35
Giant Mine, Silver Giant Mine, Giant Mascot Mine
“There is nothing today to encourage anyone but a born gambler to take the chance [on developing the property], and everything to discourage anyone to do this.”58
Giant Mine, Silver Giant Mine, Giant Mascot Mine
The first hardrock mining claim staked in the East Kootenay… and the second hardrock location in all of the Kootenays.
“We sat down and sliding – not always smoothly or comfortably – from one foothold to another and making sharp angles around rugged corners of the bluff we got to the mouth of a tunnel. Dave… with a smile asked; “How would you like to pack these timbers on your back down there?” pointing at some timbering. No one replied as we were very anxious then to get further into the tunnel to take a long breath.”11
The Paradise mine captured the local imagination in a way that no other mining property in the valley has quite come close to.
“In its early days Hammond used to say it [the mine] should have been called the ‘Parasite’.” 46
Although provincially classified as a small mine, the Mineral King Mine was the largest underground mining enterprise in the Windermere Valley.
Those who examined the Mineral King property in these early years agreed that that it was, “very encouraging”24, but as the scattered investment in the property suggests, there were a number of factors impeding development.
In The Windermere 