A Different World Board members, management and owners were certainly of a different class. G.G.S. Lindsey, who became president of Crow’s Nest Pass Coal in 1907, was William Lyon Mackenzie’s grandson and studied law with Sir John A. Macdonald, and Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, one of the company’s earliest directors, is famous for building Casa Loma in Toronto.

Ethnic hostility began to change with the second generation, however, as children of immigrants shared a common language. Sharing a three-room schoolhouse, these children had more in common with their neighbours than their parents had.

The Townsite

COAL CREEK HERITAGE TRAIL

Slav Town

BARN

COAL CREEK ROAD

RIFLERANGE P

FERNIEAQUATICCENTRE TO ST. MARGARET’S

CEMETERY

COAL CREEK

PIN

E AV

EN

UE

P

P

COAL CREEKTOWNSITETRAILHEAD

RIDGEMONTROAD

LEG

EN

D KIOSK

PANEL

P PARKING

LANDMARKCOAL CREEK HERITAGE TRAILROADSECONDARY ROADCREEK

FIRST CREEK ROAD

COAL CREEK ROAD TO MATHESON CREEK.5km

0.6 km

3.0 km

4.7 km

5.1 km

HERITAGE ROAD

7.0 km

7.6 km

8.2 km

9.2 km

8.5 km#1 NORTH MINE

OLD #4 MINE#5 MINE

OLD #9 MINE

0km MAP PANEL

RIFLE RANGE ROAD

N

0 km

2 km

RIVER ROAD

#9 MINE

Miners accommodations provided comfort after a hard days work.

This picture was taken very close from where you are now standing. Miners lived close to where they worked, and typical of many Western Canadian mining towns of the era, Coal Creek was a collection of ethnic villages that reflected the origins of its residents. The Chinese laundry and Slav Town were situated here, but there were also enclaves of French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Welsh, Scots and other ethnicities—you may notice the “French Camp Shacks” area on the old map.

Newspaper reports of the 1902 mining disaster show the divisions to be both systematic and alienating, with some reports blaming the explosion on foreigners. Isolated by language, ethnic divisions caused the differing groups to be mistrustful of each other. While divisions were useful to the mining company, because they hindered unionization, those who shared a common language would naturally come together.

Men posing on Trites Woods sleigh with company store in the background

Layout of Coal Creek townsite

William Fernie (with the black hat) seated in the upper left corner of

the photo.

N

French Camp Shacks

Tipple

Granary&

Stables

Power House & Boiler House

Government Building & Jail

Catholic Church

Methodist ChurchSchool

No 1 East MineNo 2 Mine

No 1 North Mine

No 9 Mine North

B North Mine

You Are Here

Machine Shops

Slav Town

Coal Creek

CNPCCMine Office

&Warehouse

Trites Woods Store

Boarding House

Athletic Club

Coyote Road To Fernie

Welsh Camp