For Black History Month, Black Press is honouring the life of Arthur Lee Clore, a black prospector who lived in northwest B.C. from 1910 until he passed away in 1968.

Clore's impact in the region is visible to this day.

The Clore River is named after him as he had a trail up the river to his claims in the area.

He had several claims in the Tahtsa Lake area, as well as Terrace, including a claim with Terrace founder George Little in 1925 at the 1,500-ft level on Kleanza Mountain, six miles northeast of Terrace. In 1935, the two staked the Beanstock claim at the 2,500 ft level of the mountian, which Kleanza Mines Ltd. eventually bought in 1966.

Mount Clore is named after him as well as he had seven claims on and around the mountain.

Clore is buried in the Terrace Municipal cemetery.

In the Sept. 8, 1960 issue of The Northern Sentinel, Stan Rough wrote about Clore in Rough's column, Time and Place.

"I've Stood On My Own Feet So Long" by Stan Rough

Recently I spent a Saturday afternoon with Arthur L. Clore a gentleman of the old school who lives on Highway 16 a mile east of the Copper River.

Mr. Clore, a soft spoken prospector with a trace of southern accent who was born in Virginia in 1887, had a lot to say about present day conditions

"Today a lot of money passes through your hands but little stays."

"In the old days we had no old age pensions, no relief, we paid our bills helped one another when things were tough and we managed to pull through."

"Every farm was like a full rigged ship. It could stand on its own. There was flour, potatoes and a little money in the bank."

"The conservative Yankees of Virginia and Massachusetts where I was raised didn't take handouts from Mr. Roosevelt in the depression. Too much dependence on the government today. It don't look good. I hope today's boys and girls come out all right. I go my own way, it seems to work fine. I stand on my own two feet."

"There are lots of pessimists in this world. They said there was no oil in Texas, Alberta and Saskatchewan, minerals in Ontario and the prairies were too dry and cold to grow wheat. How wrong they were! Why man this world is full of riches but you got to go look for them go work for them."

Leaving the tobacco fields of Virginia and Massachusetts at an early age Mr. Clore worked on railroads in California, Montana and Alaska and arrived in Prince Rupert in 1910.

He cut ties near Copper City for the Grand Trunk Railway then being built along the Skeena. In those days a good logger received $30 a month and a case of whiskey cost $10.70. This was fine for the loggers and railroad construction workers. The loggers especially let "plenty of daylight in the swamp."

A lot of the railroad grade around Terrace was built by the homesteaders using wheelbarrows. They were paid by a cubic yard and they worked long hours to accumulate ready cash.

The line was well built says Arthur Clore. "No timber or logs in the right of way, rock cuts, and tunnels made for a good line along the Skeena. Yes it was well built. They say it cost a million a mile from Rupert to Smithers. The line never had to be rebuilt, few lines can make that claim through rough country."

In 1910 miners were working on Lorne Creek using monitors to wash down the gravel. Miners as well as homesteaders got in their winter supplies in the fall. In the winter the mail was taken out by day team to Kitimat.

Sim Dobie who had a farm and operated the telegraph office at Copper City was a popular spot for winter travellers. Across the river was George Skinner who kept a store and a number of cabins for wintering prospectors. They showed Clore ore samples and according to their stories the poorest was worth $30,000.

There were 40-50 claims Thornhill Mountain and over 70 ön the Copper River and Gold Creek. Andrew Olson took out $3,800 from a small pocket no bigger than a washtub and from time to time options were taken up on various properties.

In 1932 Mr. Clore took up prospecting in earnest and worked on Gold Creek with indifferent success.

One of the first to work on Gold Creek was Charlie Kendell in 1892. He was drowned in Bowron River near Prince George in 1923. He was formally a scout in the U.S. cavalry on the trail of Sitting Bull. One time he was out of grub and shot a crow and related afterwards "The longer I cooked the bird the tougher it got."

Clore gave up, placer mining and switched to rock prospecting from Morice Lake to the Skeena. He followed the big fork of the Copper to its source and this branch as well as a mountain are named after him. Birnie River and Lake are named after a Smithers big game guide.

In 1922 the Moncton survey party were lost when they came across a Clore blaze beside a river indicating that it was a branch of the Copper River. By following it they saved a number of days rough travel.

From 1945 to 1948 he worked for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company in the Whitesail area and finished up on Tahtsa-Lake about four miles from where the 10 mile tunnel to the Kenmano powerhouse is today. They found one good dike but ti was too isolated to be practical.

In 1951 Arthur Clore while cutting a tree a snag smashed his shoulder which laid him up for a year and as he puts it "slowed him up." His last main prospecting expedition was in 1957 up to the headwater of the Copper River. A grizzly bear stole most of his grub but after abandoning all his equipment he had enough grub to reach a cabin owned by the Consolidated outfit on the Kitnark River where he found a little flour.

At Fred Wells' cabin 28 miles further along he found several cans of canned meat and arrived home five days later exhausted. (Fred Wells was the discoverer of the Cariboo Gold Quartz mine at Wells near the old gold rush town of Barkerville).

Today Arthur Clore cultivates a small garden near his cabin. A spring on the hillside supplies drinking water and irrigation. He gives away much of his crop to friends.

John Hogen has a prospect on Copper Mountain at the 2,000 foot level and each spring Clore, after putting in his garden, spends his spare time keeping an eye on the claim and prospecting.

At the age of 72 Arthur Clore lives a quiet simple life. He goes into Terrace once a month for supplies, a habit formed before the rapid transportation age.

As we talked he occasionally walked across the cabin and shook his finger at me to emphasize a point.

"Yes sir" he said as I was leaving "they tell me I should collect the old age pension but I don't know if I will. I've stood on my own two feet so long that it's hard to hold out your hand for something."