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When David Crowther arrived in Britannia Beach, B.C., in January 1974, the mine was still running.
“I moved there as a 16-year-old … and it was still a company town,” he says.
The Britannia Mine, which operated from 1904 to November 1974, was once the largest copper mine in the British Commonwealth. Over seven decades, more than 60,000 people from more than 50 countries lived and worked in the community along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, about 50 kilometres north of Vancouver.
“It’s changed a lot,” says Crowther, whose father used to work as an accountant in the mine office.
Crowther himself later started working at the Britannia Mine Museum, which opened to the public in May 1975 not long after the mine closed.
Crowther, who now lives in Squamish, occasionally finds himself back in Britannia Beach walking through buildings he remembered from his teenage years.
“I used to party in the community hall over there,” he says.
“It’s very nice to see it gentrified and very modern and yet there’s still some authentic stuff.”
That change has now been officially recognized.
Earlier this month, Britannia Village, a restored commercial and residential village just across from the museum, received the 2026 Heritage B.C. award for outstanding conservation.
The Britannia Village project’s value, according to Heritage B.C., “lies in preserving a collection of original historic buildings.”
The village officially opened in August last year and is part of a decades-long redevelopment project led by developer Macdonald Communities.
In a statement, president Rob Macdonald called the heritage award “an honour” shared by everyone involved in the 20-year process of revitalizing Britannia Beach.
“Along with facilitating the cleanup of the mine, we have been able to restore a historic mining community and give it new purpose as a gathering place for residents and travellers in Sea-to-Sky country,” he said.
Paul Done, marketing manager for Britannia Village, says nine original mine town buildings were saved and repurposed, including the church, theatre, community hall and a bunkhouse where miners used to sleep between their shifts.
These buildings now house a general store, pub, bakery, restaurant, daycare and community hall.
“Now when you visit the museum, you can come in [here] and imagine what it was like to live in this beautiful part of the world,” he said.
Done says the village also consists of 14 houses below market rental, designated for employees working there, alongside new housing for community members, including 197 single-family homes and 73 townhomes.
The restoration work required a great deal of effort, says Done, adding the entire village had to be lifted about two metres because of flood risks from surrounding creeks.
“It was a very complex and long process with all the zoning regulations and the heritage requirements,” he added.
Tony Rainbow, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District director for Area D, said it would have been easier to simply demolish the old buildings.
The Britannia Mine Museum is celebrating 100 years of the building that was Mill No. 3. A new exhibit on the building’s history and impact runs until late next year.
“But they didn’t do that,” he said. “That allowed them to retain the exterior look of the buildings, but obviously inside everything is up to modern code.”
“I think it’s amazing what has been achieved,” Rainbow said.
From pollution to remediation
The closure of the mine left behind more than empty buildings.
For 70 years, the mine caused between four and 40 million litres of acidic mine drainage to leak into Howe Sound every day, according to a 2017 report.
Contamination was so severe that the site was once dubbed the worst source of heavy metal pollution in B.C.
“[Pollutants] were leaching out into Howe Sound and killing all the fish,” said Done.
He says the cleanup of the water was the first major step in the broader renewal of Britannia Beach.
Macdonald Communities has owned large portions of the Britannia Beach lands for more than 20 years. In 2004, the developer sold most of the mine lands back to the province “to enable remediation of the environmental legacy left behind by the former mine.”
The provincial government then stepped in to install water treatment at the mine, significantly reducing acid rock drainage and heavy metals entering Howe Sound.
Done says salmon have since returned to Britannia Creek and marine life is again being seen in Howe Sound.
A community takes shape again
Britannia Beach Fire Chief Rob Nicholls, who lives in the townhomes beside the village, said the area has gone from a place with little more than a general store to an attractive destination to live and visit.
“It’s now a very vibrant community to live in, a pretty exciting place,” Nicholls said.
For newer residents, the appeal is not only the history.
Monik Macias, a singer from Mexico who now lives in Britannia Village, said she feels part of a place that is still taking shape.
“It’s a new discovery for me,” she said. “I feel part of this town because I’m growing with the community.”
The village also recently revived part of Britannia’s social history.
On May 17, community members celebrated Britannia Day, marking the 100th anniversary of the first Copper Queen celebration, a spring festival that began in 1926 and ran until the mine closed in 1974.
For Crowther, the return of the celebration brought back memories of the old mining town.
“My sister was at the Copper Queen festival. I know lots of girls from Britannia that were in it,” he said. “I have many childhood memories from my teens in this town.”
