By: Tom Langford
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) started converting some of its coal-powered steam engines to oil burners in the early 1950s, and at the same time began buying new diesel locomotives. These technological changes caused the CPR to significantly reduce its purchases of coal over the course of the 1950s.
At first, Elk River Colliery at Coal Creek and Michel Collieries, both operated by Crow’s Nest Pass Coal (CNPC), survived the downturn relatively unscathed. In contrast, the coal mining industry in the Crowsnest Pass was quickly decimated. Coal production at mines in The Pass fell from 2.4-million tons in 1951 to 1.1-million tons in 1954. The depth of the economic downturn was punctuated when the International Mine at Coleman ended production on 29 March 1954, never to reopen. Between 1951 and 1956, the Crowsnest Pass lost 20 percent of its population as people migrated in search of work.
In the Elk Valley, however, coal production was the same in 1956 as in 1951 and Fernie’s population even nudged upwards by one percent over those years. In the mid-1950s, 707 coal-burning steam locomotives still operated in Western Canada, suggesting that dieselization would be a gradual process. Indeed, CNPC did not anticipate a sudden end of sales of coal to the CPR since it invested in developing a new mine at Elk River Colliery – in late October 1957, this mine was already more than 1,200 feet into the side of the mountain, and a ventilation system and mechanical loaders had been installed. But that same month, the CPR placed an order that would increase its fleet of diesel engines in Alberta and British Columbia to 944 and end its need for steam locomotives. Recognizing that its largest customer would soon stop buying coal, CNPC summoned prominent Fernie citizens to a meeting on 15 January 1958 where it announced that Elk River Colliery would close at the end of the month. On 31 January, the federal government reported 441 unemployed in Fernie, including 278 mine workers.
After the 1958 mine closing, the Fernie Chamber of Commerce took over from the Fernie local of the United Mineworkers of America as the city’s leading organization. Its initiatives included an unsuccessful campaign to get the federal government to build a new prison at Fernie and a quixotic application to have Fernie chosen as the Canadian Olympic Committee’s nominee to be the site of the 1968 Winter Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Tom Uphill retired in 1960 after 40 consecutive years as Fernie District’s elected Labour representative in Victoria. He was succeeded by Harry McKay, a prominent member of the chamber of commerce who ran as a Liberal.
And there is so much else that happened during these years, including:
- The abandonment of a luxury resort development because of a conflicting proposal for a pulp mill at Morrissey (that was never built).
- A fly-by-night proposal to build a new brewery that collapsed when it failed to secure a provincial license.
- The continuing exclusion of the Ktunaxa from discussions about the future of the Elk Valley.
- The establishment of Fernie Snow Valley Ski which, although it did not yield the hoped-for windfall profits for local investors, would establish recreation as an important economic alternative to coal.
Tom Langford's book, The Lights On the Tipple Are Going Out: Fighting Economic Ruin in a Canadian Coalfield, examines the fight for economic survival and renewal across the Elk Valley and Crowsnest Pass during the 1950s and 1960s. He is hosting a book launch and talk on May 22 at the Fernie Museum at 7 p.m., that will focus on what happened in Fernie during these decades.
