It was on her extensive 1958 summer tour of Canada that H.R.H. The Princess Margaret visited the Canadian gold mines. Initially known as the Bralorne-Pioneer mine, and the most inmportant mine of the lucrative Bridge River Mining District, the Pioneer Gold Mine can trace its history back to the gold rush along the Fraser River in the 1850s. Large scale mining was undertaken in the early 1930s, and by the time the mine ceased operation in 1971, over four million ounces of gold had been produced: more than from any other mine in British Columbia.