The Roadside showing is located at 740 metres elevation, 3 kilometres south-southwest of Olalla, British Columbia. The occurrence is part of the historic Olalla gold camp.
In 1899, the Roadside showing was owned by Mangott, Shatford and Coutney and it was reported very good copper ore with gold was discovered in a shaft. The shaft was extended in 1900 and a considerable body of copper sulphides was intersected. The Roadside claim was Crown granted by 1906. The showing consisted of a shaft, several opencuts and tunnels. Little else is known of the history of the Roadside showing until the 1980s when staked as the Bell claim by G. Crooker. Crooker and various options have continued exploration on the Roadside and other occurrences in the Olalla area.
The Roadside occurrence is located within the ultramafic to alkaline Middle Jurassic Olalla intrusion. This intrusion has intruded a sequence of oceanic sediments and volcanics of the Triassic Shoemaker Formation and overlying Triassic Old Tom Formation. Black to green chert, light grey quartzite and minor limestone lenses comprise the dominant lithologies. The Old Tom and Shoemaker formations form a broadly folded, east-dipping sequence in the area. The Olalla intrusion consists of a magnetite-bearing pyroxenite peripheral zone to a diorite and syenite core. The pyroxenite is composed primarily of augite with lesser magnetite. Potassic alteration consisting of biotite, orthoclase, calcite and quartz occurs within the pyroxenite. The syenite is fine grained, light grey to buff to pink and has also been altered to orthoclase and quartz. Coarse grained syenite dikes occur at the contact with the peripheral pyroxenite zone.
Metasomatic deposits have formed along the contact of the Olalla intrusion with Shoemaker sediments. Mineralization is related to skarns, shearing and quartz veining. Mineralization consists mainly of auriferous and argentiferous pyrite and pyrrhotite with minor chalcopyrite, malachite, azurite and tetrahedrite.
Mineralization at the Roadside showing consists of a number of small erratic sulphide zones hosted in metasediments of the Old Tom Formation. Chert and cherty argillites comprise the dominant rock type. Pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite and malachite occur in small lensoidal calcareous seams, often strongly oxidized. The gangue is commonly recrystallized calcite that is commonly enclosed by or contains skarn minerals such as garnet (grossularite), diopside, epidote and chlorite. A large area surrounding the Roadside showing is reported to be heavily copper carbonate altered. Trace platinum is also reported found associated with copper ores (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1922, page 163).
An old shaft, approximately 8 metres deep, intersected a 1-metre wide shear zone, striking 080 degrees and dipping vertical. In 1992, a rock chip sample taken over a 30-centimetre wide shear zone immediately east of this shaft, yielded 0.81 gram per tonne gold, 15.3 grams per tonne silver and 1.4 per cent copper (Assessment Report 22256). The shaft has been drifted from the bottom but the drift length is unknown. Several old trenches in the area were also sampled. One of these trenches, 125 metres north-northwest of the shaft, is 7 metres long by 2 metres wide and exposes a 1-metre wide shear zone striking 245 degrees and dipping 66 degrees north. The shear is host to a 1 to 45-centimetre wide calcite vein containing pyrite, chalcopyrite, malachite and possibly bornite. Grab sample E004-011 yielded 0.24 gram per tonne gold, 2.4 grams per tonne silver and 0.32 per cent copper (Assessment Report 22256). Two other large trenches, 100 metres north of the adit, have exposed a shear striking 268 to 276 degrees and dipping 70 to 85 degrees north. The shear is accompanied by strong oxidation, massive pyrite skarn and narrow fractures with quartz and calcite. The best grab sample from these trenches yielded 0.03 gram per tonne gold, 5.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.54 per cent copper (Assessment Report 22256).
A diamond drill program was initiated approximately 110 metres north-northeast of the Roadside showing in 1984, but two holes were abandoned due to poor recovery and drilling difficulties. The drillholes were done by Boise Creek Resources Ltd.
In 1939, the Roadside produced 27 tonnes of ore from which 560 grams of silver were recovered. The property was operated by R. Guastin.
