Venus mill documentation project aims to illuminate and educate using digital technology
“Complicated yet simple, it is a wonderful combination of mechanism, perfection and utility,”
Perched precariously on a steep slope on the west side of Windy Arm on Tagish Lake, the Venus mill’s remains are a recognized landmark to those who travel the South Klondike Highway in the Traditional Territory of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.
The deteriorating structure inspires curiosity and conjures images of a lesser-known period in Yukon history; a time before highways when silver ore was shipped on Tagish Lake in the early 1900s.
Though the mill has deteriorated past the point of structural conservation, technology and innovation are enabling a new way to conserve the site and give the mill new life through documentation and interpretation.
John. H. Conrad came to the Yukon in 1903. With dreams of becoming rich, Conrad became president of Conrad Consolidated Mines Ltd. and began optioning mining claims around Windy Arm. The company eventually built and operated the Venus mine, and at first the financial outlook was promising.
In June 1906, the Whitehorse Daily Star reported that an assay from the mine netted 900 ounces of silver and $70 worth of gold per ton, which “shows it to be the richest property discovered in modern times.”
In 1908, Conrad finished building a seven-level 91-tonne mill to process the silver ore on-site, instead of losing money by shipping it out for processing. The Venus mill became the first concentrating mill in the Yukon, and it was outfitted with the most modern equipment available at the time.
While in operation, an aerial cable tramway ferried ore about half a kilometre downhill from the mine to the mill. There, the ore was fed into a hopper and a steam-operated pulley system carried it down through several levels of crushers, screens and concentrators that all worked to separate the mineral from rock.
Once at the bottom, the concentrated powder was loaded onto a steamship for transport to Carcross, and then it was brought by train to Skagway, Alaska to be shipped out for smelting. At peak performance, the Venus mill could process 10 tons of silver ore concentrate per day.
“Complicated yet simple, it is a wonderful combination of mechanism, perfection and utility,” reported the Whitehorse Star in November 1908. “One thirty-horsepower engine operates the whole thing, every part of which runs with the smoothness and nicety of a new sewing machine and with but little more noise.”
Over time, the mine proved less lucrative than first hoped. The ore in the Venus vein was not consistent in quality. It was also oxidized, which meant that it had to be chemically treated before fully extracting the metals. There were plans to bring a treatment plant on site, but those plans did not materialize.
Due to ore quality, falling silver prices and high shipping costs, the Venus mill closed and was abandoned in 1912. Between 1916 and 1920, its equipment was updated, and it was reopened and run by a series of other companies, each for a short time.
The mill was never used again after 1920, although there were intermittent efforts to mine the area again in the 1960s and the 1980s.
Today, the site is a heritage reserve, managed by the Government of Yukon. The mill’s age, condition and situation on a steep slope make it unstable and at risk of collapse.
“It was highlighted as a site where we really need to do something now or we may lose the opportunity,” says Rebecca Jansen, manager of the Historic Sites Unit (HSU), Government of Yukon.
“In this case, we’re focusing on thorough documentation to be able to tell the story of a place that we can’t physically conserve in perpetuity.”
Good documentation ensures that if something were to happen to the site, the HSU has a comprehensive record of what was there to further understand the site, how it worked and what it would have looked like while in operation.
“While it may appear that we’re doing nothing because the structure is deteriorating, we’re actually doing a lot to conserve aspects of this site by using new, innovative technologies for documenting and presenting that information out to the public in a safe and accessible way,” says Jansen.
A few years ago, the HSU began its research and partnered with digital documentation experts through Carleton Immersive Media Studio (Carleton University), located in Ottawa. In July 2023, faculty members and researchers spent a week taking photos and measurements of the mill, including 3D scans, panoramic photographs, as well as drone images to map the site’s topography.
Because of safety concerns, the team was not able to enter the structures, but they used state-of-the-art technologies that could collect the data they needed from the edges of the site.
“You don’t need to go and measure by hand; you don’t need to be physically there engaging with those areas that are quite dangerous,” says Mario Santana Quintero, a professor in architectural conservation and sustainability engineering at Carleton´s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“Basically, a laser scanner is a device that you put on a tripod. It rotates, and it captures a three-dimensional point cloud of the space. Then, you can use all these three-dimensional point clouds to either model the site, or to create measure drawings.”
Santana Quintero’s team is multi-disciplinary, composed of students and researchers from different departments, from architecture to engineering to media studies. They work on documenting heritage in Canada and internationally.
The data collected in the Yukon was used to prepare floor plans and cross-section drawings of the structures. In the current phase of the project, another team in the media studio is using that data to create a virtual tour that will eventually be presented to the public through interactive online storytelling.
“We strongly discourage people from entering the area and putting themselves and the structure in danger by trying to climb around it,” says Jansen. “Instead, they will be able to see and learn about the site through the virtual tour once it’s available.”
To learn more about historic sites and heritage reserves, visit yukonheritage.com.
