Canmore Miners’ Day will be held this weekend and interest in the event is growing.
Organizer Gordie Miskow said about 210 individual families have registered for the parade and picnic scheduled for Saturday (July 9)
“It seems to be getting larger and larger every year,” Miskow said, as members of third and fourth generations are now showing interest.
Miners’ Day is also garnering greater interest from sponsors and volunteers, which is ensuring the event can continue, Miskow said.
“We’d be in jeopardy without them.”
New for this year, the picnic, traditionally held outdoors on Mine Side, will be held indoors in the curling club facility at the Canmore Golf and Curling Club at 1:30 p.m.
“They have donated the curling rink so we can have our picnic indoors and that takes away a lot of the logistics problems with our elders,” Miskow said.
And while the picnic is a closed event, reserved for miners and their families, a beef-on-a-bun barbecue for the public and the mining families will be held at the Civic Centre following the parade.
The parade begins at the North West Mounted Police barracks at noon. It travels down Main Street, turning right on Seventh Avenue and ending at the Civic Centre. Families are asked to meet at the barracks at 11 a.m.
As part of the 2011 Miners’ Day, the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre is hosting an informal exhibit comprised of artifacts that museum representative Debbie Carrico hopes gets miners and their family members talking.
“We think the miners’ stories are very important,” Carrico said. “We’d like to invite the miners to come in and share a glass of lemonade and a cookie and offer an oral history of the mines if they are agreeable.”
Miners willing to share their stories and knowledge do not have to make an appointment. Instead, they can sit down at any point in the afternoon with one of three familiar Canmore faces – Leslie Lewis, Jason Knudston and Miskow – who have agreed to do the interviewing.
For more information or to register for the parade and the picnic, email [email protected] or call 403-678-4794.
