Coalmont, British Columbia
| Coalmont | |
|---|---|
 Coalmont
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| Coordinates: 49°31′00″N 120°42′00″W / 49.51667°N 120.70000°WCoordinates: 49°31′00″N 120°42′00″W / 49.51667°N 120.70000°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Province |
 British Columbia
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| Area code(s) | 250, 778 |
Coalmont is a tiny mining town, 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Princeton, British Columbia, Canada, on the north bank of the Tulameen River. The population of Coalmont is roughly 100 full-time residents. It is near the community of Tulameen and Otter Lake and the Coldwater Junction of the Coquihalla Highway. The town was established in 1912 to serve as a supply point to the neighbouring coal mine at Blakeburn.
Coal was first discovered in the area as early as 1858; a fully exposed vein that reportedly could be lit by a match. When Columbia Coal and Coke moved their offices from Granite Creek to Upper Town in 1911, they gave Coalmont its name. The area just West of Coalmont, formerly referred to as “Cardiff”, became “Upper Town”, the location for the mining office, shipping terminal, power plant, company stables, school and workers’ residences. "Coalmont” was the location for stores, hotels and other businesses, and residences. The lumber to build the necessary buildings came from their sawmill in nearby Tulameen . The original minesite was on the hillside overlooking the South side of the Tulameen River, a bit West of Coalmont, and part of the wooden abutment for the Upper Town Bridge still survives on the South shore of the Tulameen River, about a kilometre upstream of the present bridge. They were attempting to mine the coal from underneath, but the ground proved unstable, and the coal seams fractured.
Coalmont Collieries took over the operation in 1913, and began mining higher on the mountain, accessing the coal from above, but production and all development in the town stopped when War broke out in 1914. After the War, owners Blake Wilson and Pat Burns reorganized the company, and resumed operations. When the three mile long Aerial Tramway was built to carry the coal from the Blakeburn minesite down to Coalmont, production increased from about 10,000 tons a year to over 100,000 and it eventually peaked at 167,461 tons in 1928. The Tramway operated by gravity, the full hoppers of coal moving down providing the energy to take the empty buckets back up, and it could transport a ton of coal a minute. The Kettle Valley Railway, part of the C.P.R., originally purchased the coal for their steam engines, but quickly discovered that it burned too hot and warped the firebox grates, a similar problem to that experienced by the locals when used in their stoves. Stove lids and grates were big sellers in the local stores! The old KVR railbed (sans rails) is now part of the well maintained Trans Canada Trail.
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Wikipedia