By Les Hurt
To circa 1910, the history of the Crowsnest Pass was an
exciting story of discovery, exploration and development. The
first intrusions by prospectors and miners into the mountainous
region of south-western Alberta and south-eastern British
Columbia were set against the romantic background of early
missionary endeavours and the equally adventurous mapping and
survey expeditions. Father Pierre-Jean de Smet was the first
white man to come near the Pass (1845), while Thomas Blakiston
of the Palliser expedition (1858-1860) was the first person to
note it by its recognized name and mark its general direction.
After the Crow's Nest Pass Railway was completed from Lethbridge
to Kootenay Landing on the southern end of Kootenay Lake in
1898, exploitation of the immense coal reserves proceeded at a
fast and furious pace. From 1897 to 1911, no less than twelve
mining companies began operations within the Pass, and in terms
of output their performance was indeed noteworthy. According to
the 1911 Annual Report of the Alberta Coal Mines Branch, of the
649,745 tons of bituminous coal mined within the province, a
total of 528,119 tons were extracted from within the Crowsnest
Pass.
The boom mentality which prevailed throughout the Crowsnest
Pass mining industry during the first decade of the 20th century
gave way shortly, however, to depression and decline. The defeat
of the Laurier government in 1911 seemed to bring with it a
significant reduction in investment capital and consequently
mines were either closed or their hours of operation curtailed
drastically. The West Canadian mine at Lille was abandoned in
1913, while similar operations at Hosmer, Passburg, Burmis,
Frank and Blairmore were liquidated within the next five years.
The social consequences of the depression in the mining industry
were also catastrophic. Besides unemployment, land values fell,
which put an additional financial burden on those who were
forced to leave. And the first real effect of World War One on
the Crowsnest Pass mining industry, namely, the loss of European
export markets, merely exacerbated the situation. The economic
climate improved slightly from 1916 to 1918, but with the
post-war recession the problem of high unemployment was once
again resurrected. At this point, an entirely new factor entered
into the picture. With the founding of the One Big Union in
1919, and because of its sub sequent crusade in the Crowsnest
Pass, there was a decided swing to the left on the part of the
Pass miners.
Speaking generally, the period from the mid-1920s to 1939 was
not markedly different from the recession which followed the
First World War. As the markets for coal began to decline, the
operators of the mines were forced to cut back on their
operations, and the strikes called to protest the reduction in
wages and hours of work did little to rectify the situation. At
the Coal Creek Colliery on the British Columbia side of the
Pass, nearly four hundred men were permanently dismissed in the
fall of 1929. The deepening depression of the 1930s aggravated
the situation. From 1929 to 1931, production at West Canadian,
McGillivray Creek and International Coal and Coke Company
collieries fell by an average of 48.8 percent. And the infamous
Pass strike of 1932, called to protest, among other things, the
rumours of a proposed wage reduction, revived the spectre of a
socialist-dominated union movement. Indeed, it has been
suggested that the most important legacy of the 1932 strike was
the election of a workers' slate to the Blairmore Town Council
in February 1933.
Not unexpectedly, the Second World War stimulated the demand
for coal. The industry's reprieve, however, was only temporary,
for once the war was concluded the traditional difficulties
resurfaced. Declining markets, under-employment and
over-production were among the more serious problems. Even more
sombre were the prospects for the future. Not only was there
little hope of ameliorating the-age-old problems, but the
discovery and utilization of new sources of energy added yet
another complicating factor. In 1951, the number of operating
mines within the Alberta portion of the Crowsnest Pass stood at
twelve, while by 1967 it had been reduced to four. Fortunately,
the expansion of other basic industries, i.e., lumbering, helped
to cushion the impact of the contraction in the coal industry,
but the gains derived from these ancillary undertakings were of
insufficient weight to tip the scales in favour of a marked
economic revival. It remains to be seen whether or not the
expanding Japanese coal market will provide the necessary
stimulus.
Before proceeding with a brief analysis of the literature
concerning the Crowsnest Pass, it is first necessary to delimit
the region's boundaries. Although a seemingly simple
geographical problem, it acquires added dimension upon further
inquiry. Virtually every person writing about the Pass has set
his own limits to it, varying from a large and loosely defined
area encompassing most of south-western Alberta and
south-eastern British Columbia, to a narrow corridor between
Bellevue and Morrissey. The arbitrary manner in which the
boundaries were established was due in most part to the nature
of the topic under consideration. If, for instance, it-was coal
mining, then the tendency was to expand the boundaries to
include Lundbreck in the east and Fernie in the west. On the
other hand, if the topic was the geologic composition of the
mountain passes, then the limits were considerably narrower. For
the purposes of this study, a very broad area encompassing some
410,000 acres has been delineated. It is bound on the southeast
by Cowley, on the southwest by Fernie, on the northeast by North
Fork, and on the northwest by Sparwood. It was deemed
appropriate to include Fernie within the purview of this study
because its early fortunes were for the most part related
directly to the amount of coal and coke produced by the Crow's
Nest Pass Coal Company. Considerable controversy also exists
over the proper name of the Pass. However, within this work, the
legally correct form Crowsnest Pass will be used
This article is extracted from Les Hurt, Bibliography of
the Crowsnest Pass (Unpublished Report: Historic Sites
Service, Alberta Community Development,
no date). The Heritage Community Foundation and the
Year of the Coal Miner Consortium would like to thank Les Hurt and
Alberta Community Development for permission to reprint this
material.
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