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EA-Biography

(Alyce Finnie)

GEORGE MELLIS DOUGLAS

        George Mellis Douglas (1875 - 1963 ), engineer and explorer, was born

in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 9, the son of Campbell Mellis Douglas,

V.C., M.D., Col. R.A.M.S., and Eleanor Ann (Burmester) Douglas. He was

educated at the Grove School, Lakefield, Ontario, Trinity College School,

at Port Hope, Ontario, at Toronto University from 1892-93, and at Ruther–

ford College, Newcastle on Tyne, from 1894 to 1897, during which time he

was also apprenticed as engineer with the Armstrong and Hawthorn Leslie

Works. He went to sea as a marine engineer from 1897 to 1900, and then

began a career in Mexico and Arizona as an engineer and later consulting

engineer which lasted until 1940.

        This engineering career in the southwest was interrupted by the first

of Douglas' northern mineral explorations, his 1911-1912 journey to Great

Bear Lake to investigate the copper deposits of the Coppermine area. In

1771 Samuel Hearne attempted to find the "copper mines" reported long before

by the Indians. Hearne was unsuccess f ul in his attempts, though his Indian

guides pointed out to him the "jumble of rocks" containing the deposits.

In 1820 Sir John Franklin was instructed to observe the mineral occurrences

of the Coppermine Mountains and Dr. John Richardson, a member of the party

who possessed some geological knowledge, described the character of the

formation, but its extent was not determined. In 1836 Thomas Simpson reported

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EA-Biog. Finnie: George Mellis Douglas

finding copper in the Copper Mountains and at Bathurst Inlet, and similar

reports were made by David Hanbury in 1903.

        The next and most serious attempt to investigate these copper deposits

was made by the Douglas expedition in 1911, sponsored by Dr. James Douglas

of Arizona, and headed by George M. Douglas, his cousin. The party included

Lionel Douglas, brother of George, and Dr. August Sandberg, a geologist.

        They traveled by means of the Hudson's Bay Company's transport as far

as Fort Norman, then tracked up the Great Bear River to Great Bear Lake in

their York boat. They sailed across the lake to the northeast corner where

the Dease River flows into Great Bear Lake. Douglas and Sandberg canoed up

the Dease River to Dismal Lakes and thence by the Kendall River to the Copper–

mine. Investigations were made around the Coppermine Mountains during this

first season, before they returned to winter at their base on the Dease River.

        The next spring they returned to the Coppermine to continue their

investigations and found the extent of the mineralized area to be much greater

than had been supposed, the width of the belt being about sixteen miles. The

information brought back was considered important enough to continue more

extensive prospecting, but the first World War and its effect on the copper

industry discouraged further work in that region.

        In 1928, accompanied by Carl Lausen, a geologist, Douglas made a summer

journey with two canoes along the southeast shores of Great Slave Lake, on a

copper investigation for the United Verde Copper Company.

        In 1932 he made some coal investigations on the western shore of Great

Bear Lake, and in 1935 returned north to undertake mineral explorations around

Athabaska Lake and the country between it and Great Slave Lake; and on Great

Bear Lake. He continued his mineral explorations in 1938 with examinations

of the Snare River and the country between Great Slave Lake and Talston Lake,

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EA-Biog. Finnie: George Mellis Douglas

including Nonacho Lake.

        Douglas has been a true pioneer and explorer in the sense that he

opened up new vistas for mineral investigations by others, who, following

in his tracks, discovered important mineral deposits.

        He is the author of Lands Forlorn (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1914),

the story of his 1911-1912 expedition to the Coppermine River. For the

Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin , February 1929, he wrote an

account of his 1928 trip, "A Summer Journey along the Southeast Shores of

Great Slave Lake," and an article for the Engineering and Mining Journal Press ,

July 19, 1924, "Copper Deposits of Arctic Canada."

        Unpublished are detailed journals of all of his northern journeys,

illustrated with excellent photographs from his large personal collection.

        Douglas is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,

the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the Canadian

Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Explorer's Club, New York, and the

Arts and Letters Club, Toronto. He is a Fellow of the American Geographical

Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

       

Alyce Finnie