Ogden, British Columbia


Ogden is an unincorporated locality on the outskirts of the gold-mining ghost town of Bralorne, British Columbia, Canada. Now mostly abandoned, Ogden was once a bustling centre of commercial activities not tolerated in the company-run town, many of its establishments built on the highway easement or small parcels of steep mountainside flanking the road. Among these were Zada's "sporting house", which once suffered a small landslide through the main parlour but was back in operation soon after, and the once-famous Mines Hotel, known in the mining industry as "the main stope", which featured a miniature mining operation atop its gold-ore fireplace mantel. The first two versions of the Mines Hotel burned down soon after they were built, and the third, which stood until 1984 when it was destroyed by a furnace explosion, was built in a plain boxy style very different from the original alpine-timber design. Ogden's heyday faded long before Bralorne closed, and only a few buildings survive other than a few houses. Ogden remains on the official listing of localities in British Columbia, and is used by locals as a reference to the general area where the "town" of Ogden had been.