Coal Creek Heritage Trail June 2026 | Page 6

You are standing amongst the ruins of the No. 5 mine.

Miner with his Wolf Safety lamp

COAL MINING

By 1901, Coal Creek employed 500 men. Imagine a day in the life of Albert, a miner earning $ 3-6 / day – good wages for dangerous

TOOK Cooperation and Camaraderie work! Follow in his boots for a shift underground in 1901.

1. Washhouse and Lamp: After changing, 3. Rooms and Pillars: Underground is at Albert’ s first stop he takes two brass spread-out like a checkerboard of tags – one traded to the lamp man to rooms and pillars. Drifts or rooms are cover a numbered peg indicating his mined first leaving pillars to hold up work site in exchange for a lit Wolf the mountain. Albert makes the most Safety lamp. He slips the other brass money when pillars are removed, but it tag into his pocket – a morbid identifier can also be the most dangerous time. should disaster strike.

Listen to the roof groan and creak

2. Into the Shaft: Albert must watch out under shifting pressure for coal cars pulled by heavy horses 4. Tools and Conditions: Albert buys and air compressed locomotives called everything he needs to mine – boots,‘ Dinkies’. Every coal car he fills is pick, and blasting powder. He has to be weighed at the scale and recorded careful – if the blast is too strong the before dumped into the Tipple – he is coal turns into worthless dust. Working paid for what he mines. always in pairs, Albert and his partner, usually a son or brother, work in a steady 13 ° C picking and shoveling for eight long dark hours.

5. End of Shift: Returning his lamp and brass tag, Albert cleans up in a long communal washhouse before heading home or to the bar to wash down the coal dust.

Underground mining demanded absolute cooperation and strict safety. One mistake could cost a life or a good paying job!

Fernie & District Historical Society, FMP01043

Image D-08814 courtesy of the BC Archives

In 1897, William Blakemore, an early mine engineer with the Crow’ s Nest Pass Coal Company, recorded the seam at the Coal Creek mine being“ about 7 feet( 2.13 m) wide where operations have begun”, and the coal is the“ only true bituminous coal” he had seen

Miner Camaraderie

Fernie & District Historical Society, FMP03145do

An old miner once said“ you are only as safe as the stupidest man in the mine”, so you needed to trust one another.

In the early years, miners used a

Wolf Safety lamp for light.

Imagine working for an 8-hour shift with only the brightness of a butane lighter. The flame was cooled by a steel wire mesh, preventing ignition of gas or coal dust, thus preventing an explosion.

in the west.“ It is of good coking quality, and a firstclass

steam and domestic coal”. Hundreds of miners		AQUATIC CENTRE
and their families were needed to realize the business potential of Coal Creek. Unions quickly followed to protect workers’ rights and have always been an essential part of local coal mines.	Top left image: Fernie & District Historical Society, FMP05633	FERNIE MONTANE TRAILHEAD approx. 1 km	COAL CREEK RD RIVER RD- Closed to motorized vehicles P Coal Creek Heritage Trail Coal Creek Heritage Trail- Phase 2 Other Trail Road Road- Closed Sign Locations Points of Interest	RIFLE RANGE	AMMONITE TRAIL	YOU ARE HERE 5.1 km	MATHESON FALLS TRAIL