Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Issue 2 Fall 2016 | Page 7

MICHEL-MIDDLETOWN-NATAL

MORRISSEY

Michel was founded in 1897 and named
after Chief Michel of the Ktunaxa
Nation. By 1907, the settlement had
spread up the valley and the village
of Natal (known initially as New
Michel) was established. Over time,
Michel and Natal were joined by
other neighbourhood communities
— Middletown, Little Chicago, “Up
the Valley” (the Elk Valley) and later,
Sparwood. In the end it was the
provincial government’s desire to
beautify the southeastern entrance to
British Columbia that doomed Michel
and Natal. An urban renewal project for
that purpose began in the late 1960s,
moving most residents to Sparwood
while the old communities were
bulldozed and burned. Nothing remains
of the former townsite. 

The Morrissey mine opened in 1901.
Thirteen kilometres south-west
of Fernie, the remote location of
the Morrissey mine resulted in the
establishment of four communities:
Morrissey, Morrissey Mines,
Carbonado, and Swinton; quickly
growing to a total peak population
of over 1,500 by 1903. The mine
company, deterred by several mine
accidents and the unsuitability of the
coal for coking purposes, closed the
Morrissey mine in 1910 and abandoned
the town. The townsite was reused
briefly during World War I as an
internment camp for ‘enemy aliens’
from 1915 to 1918. Today, only the coke
ovens remain to be explored.  

CORBIN

Unlike surrounding coal mines, the
Hosmer Mine was a subsidiary of the
Canadian Pacific Railway and Hosmer
began as a C.P.R. company town. Coal
production started in 1908 and by
1910, over 1,200 people lived in what
seemed to be a community with a
bright future. In June 1914, the C.P.R.
unexpectedly announced that the
Hosmer Mine would cease production
immediately. Technically, Hosmer is
not a ghost town, as a population of
over 100 and several businesses and
community organizations still call the
hamlet home. The Hosmer power
house, coke ovens, and other ruins
can be explored, as can the Hosmer
cemetery.

Corbin was founded in 1908 by Daniel
Chase Corbin, president of Nelson and
Fort Sheppard Railway. The Corbin
operations included one of the earliest
open pit mines in the area. Corbin once
boasted a population of 600. The town
had its own railway, company store,
and a hotel called the Flathead. The
Corbin Collieries closed down their
operation in 1935 and the the town
was abandoned. Remnants of the coke
ovens remain.  

HOSMER

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