Robert Allan Brown

Robert Allan Brown (c. 1849–1931)^[1] was a well-known and flamboyant prospector and speculator in 19th and early 20th Century in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He was known generally as Volcanic Brown, especially in the province's Kootenay and Boundary districts and in adjoining Eastern Washington, and also as Sunset Brown in the Similkameen District and still also to others as Crazy Brown. His enthusiastic nature contributed to his nickname, and as result of that and his flamboyant personality he was a fixture in mining industry news in a wide region which spanned the British Columbia-United States border.

Brown was prominent in the Boundary Country and Inland Empire mining industries, in capacities ranging from being a notable and very successful prospector through to being a speculator, promoter and investor, and also the founder of Volcanic City, one of the many short-lived mining and smelting towns of the Boundary Country. He was a presence in many mining districts throughout the region and led the way in discoveries of several important orebodies, although he never became wealthy.^[2][3]