Date: March 07, 2004 09:57AMSANDON, BRITISH COLUMBIA— On July 14, 1892, James W. Cockle and his partner discovered the largest single nugget of galena— also known as a piece of “float”— ever found to this day. At 7-1/2 feet long, 3 feet wide and nine feet high, it weighed 120 tons.Elated with their discovery, the two men staked the “Morning Sun” claim on the spot where they found the float, which was soon christened The Big Boulder. Flush with visions of future wealth, they sold The Big Boulder for $2,000 to a Minneapolis man who intended to exhibit it at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Instead, it was broken up and shipped to US smelters, with the purchaser making a profit of over $20,000.Unfortunately for Cockle and his partner, however, The Big Boulder had actually rolled downhill hundreds of years before. More experienced prospectors who traced it to its original source found that it had originated on the “Slocan Star” claim, which was to become one of the richest mines in the area.Cockle eventually gave up prospecting and became a fruit-farmer in Kaslo, but news of his fantastic discovery— complete with this photograph— was soon being printed in newspapers as far away as California and England. The excitement soon reached a fever pitch, and before long thousands upon thousands of men began to descend on the fabulous Silvery Slocan.See all this and more at: