If you are curious about where Plaster of Paris comes from, you may want to visit the museum and heritage park in Falkland. In 1992 the Falkland Historical Society was established to build a museum and heritage park on leased land from Lafarge Canada.

The original gypsum mine garage houses the museum and archives while the surrounding two acres has been developed as a park with outdoor display areas and buildings.

Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate and used in the production of Plaster of Paris, Plaster Board and tiles for lath and plaster construction.

In the early nineteenth century it was regarded as an almost miraculous fertilizer. American farmers were so anxious to acquire it that a lively smuggling trade with Nova Scotia evolved, resulting in the so-called "Plaster War" of 1812.

Around 1894, a group of Kamloops prospectors staked the Salmon River deposit, now known as the Falkland Gypsum deposit. The mine started producing Gypsum in 1925 during the same time as the completion of the Kamloops to Vernon rail line.

At this time Gypsum was blasted from the mountainside and smashed by quarry workers with sledge hammers then loaded by hand into horse drawn carts and dumped into one ton rail cars for delivery to quarry terminal bins.

In 1937, new equipment was installed to meet the higher demand and in place of aerial ore buckets, a drag line, rack belt and bunkers were built allowing ore to be loaded into trucks for lower terminal crushing and then rail delivery.

By 1951, they were shipping at a peak production of 80,000 tons. That’s a pile of plaster!

However, production was suspended in 1956 due to the exhaustion of easily won high grade deposits, higher shipping costs and competition from the Kootenies. And then the quarry was finally closed. The mine was brought back to life in the mid 70’s when the property was acquired by Lafarge Canada for use in its cement production. Since then, around 10,000 tons have been mined annually and sent to their cement plant in Kamloops. A miniature 1:160 scale model of the mine in 1939 was built for the museum by Jim Goldthorp, Bob Gardner and Gary Hazell of the Shuswap Modelers. The model includes an operational bucket line.

Some of the other displays include a cobbler’s shop displaying antique shoe repairing tools, a replica of a pioneer home complete with household gadgets of that era, a General Store with a wide variety of merchandise and an old Church fully restored with the original organ, altar raiment’s and stations of the cross.

HOW TO GET THERE – The museum is located in Falkland on the right hand side of the road just past the pub. It is open in the summer months.

SEE A MINIATURE MOVING GYPSUM MINE

Top: A moving model of the gypsum mine is on display at the museum.

To the left is a model of the Gypsum Mine and to the right is the Gypsum Mine.