I live on this mountain. These are not settlements. These are logging camps or seasonal work camps. My grandfather worked up there and he was jealous of the Japanese for their beautiful shacks when the Norwegians were in canvas tents. Of course, he admitted that the Japanese just worked harder to make their own quarters.<p>There were orchards, livestock, farms of potatoes, onions and legumes, but most of the activity was in hauling out doug fir to tidewater with oxen or steam donkeys or building miles-long flumes to shoot WRC shinglebolts down to the river or Burrard Inlet.
I'm a bit naive as to how large countries like Canada monitor their space, but is it <i>possible</i> there are unknown long-term (multi generational) "settlements" separate and unknown to the rest of the world still out in the middle of nowhere in Canada? Feels like a good subject for a novel :-)
They have these all over the western US as well. Mostly Chinese though I think. Back from mining, logging, and rail building times. Many are for the most part undocumented or barely documented with short footnotes in texts from the time. I was thinking how cool it would be to bring a metal detector to one of the spots since they've been for the most part untouched.