Before the 1950's, when the first big oil fields opened in Alberta, coal was the king of fuels and everyone who could get it, used it.
There are coal seams beneath about 85% of the province of Alberta. The majority of it is classed as subbituminous (soft) coal. In the foothills of the Rockies south of Edson, along what was known as the "Coal Branch", mountain coal, (high value bitminous) was found. In the early days there were small mines for domestic coal production near any settlement or near transportation links. Along the river banks of the North Saskatchewan and the Sturgeon in and near Edmonton there were many small mines.The banks of the Red Deer River (Drumheller-East Coulee- Rosedale), the South Saskatchewan (Lethebridge) and creek valleys and cut banks here and there were mined for coal where there was a market.
Most of these mines were seasonal, with local farmers working them for the winter.
In some places, where extraction was relatively easy, transportation handy and long term contracts were in place, the mines operated year round.Alberta is the largest producer of coal in Canada. In 1998, Alberta produced 35 million tonnes (47% of Canada's total coal production) for a total value of $519 million.
In 1886, the first shipment of coal in Alberta was recorded from the Lethbridge area.
Wabamun Area Mines
Before the railroad came through and there were few settlers in the area the locals would dig coal out of the exposed seams at Coal Point, near Fallis. They did this in the winter when they could get at the banks from the lake side on the ice, when it was possible to haul a decent load on a horse drawn sleigh, and when they wanted coal to stay warm in the long winters.
In 1907 Dr. W.C. Dunn, a dentist from Wisconsin who had homesteaded one and one half miles north of the lake decided to dig a well, he went down sixty feet and found coal. He and some neighbours expanded this into a small mine and eventually sold one boxcar load to Edmonton. Dr. Dunn moved to Edmonton in 1910 and that mine closed.
Between 1911-1913 a mine was operated on SE 14-53-4-W5, or possibly NE 11. This may have been operated by H.C. Dunn under the name Security Coal Mines, or it may have been the Conner Coal Company, there is some mystery to it.
In 1913-14 a drift mine was opened, possibly slightly west of it. This was operated for two years by the Johnson family under the name New Era Mine.
In 1913 Dr. Dunn returned in partnership with a lumberman named E.A. McBain to open the Victory Mine at the location north and west of Wabamun which would operate for the next fifty years under various names and owners.
In 1946 the former manager of the Victory Mine began open pit mining at his own location two miles east of the Victory mine. This was Foster's mine under the name Lothian Coals. In 1948 Mannix bought out both mines and operated them as open pit mines until 1963 when they were subsumed into Calgary Power Ltd. (now Transalta Utilities) mining operations to provide coal for the thermal electric generating plant at Wabamun. They continue operations to the present under the name Whitewood Mine.
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To the "UNDERGROUND MINE"
My Uncle Fred was an underground miner for many years. HERE is a short history he wrote in 1987.
