There are only nine men still alive who worked underground in the Canmore Mines before they closed for good on Black Friday, July 13, 1979.
Of those nine, most people know former mine engineer Gerry Stephenson and his contributions to mining in Canmore, reclamation of sites like Quarry Lake and his work with the original Three Sisters development.
But his involvement in mining is not stuck in the past, it is ever present in Canmore with his passion to be a resource of information for municipal planners, developers, residents and visitors.
At the age of 85, Stephenson still offers a series of mine history tours in the summer months through the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre. Getting a second hip replacement this summer hasn’t slowed him down either.
He is, in essence, a walking, talking part of history that holds the most information we can access as residents of Canmore about our past as a mining community, the impact that mining has had on the town and what it means for future development.
It is a heritage that is celebrated and remembered each summer with Miners’ Day, this Saturday (July 11). Generations of miners, their families and those who shaped this community through hard work and determination will be appreciated when the Miners’ Day parade goes down Main Street at noon. The parade is followed by barbecue beef on a bun at the Civic Centre plaza presented by the Canmore Hospital Ladies Auxilliary.
Stephenson said what has surprised him the most is that each year the event grows bigger even though there are fewer and fewer miners left. He said the event is a real celebration of community and the generations that have come and gone, those who worked hard to make Canmore what it is now. Seeing the next generations at the event celebrating that history is a wonderful thing, he said.
While the Canmore Mines began in 1886, Stephenson and his family did not move to the valley until 1968. His mining experience dates back to the 1950s when, fresh out of university as a mining engineer, he worked in Val-d’Or, Quebec in a gold mine before gaining experience working in coal in England – moving nine tonnes of coal a day for $2.50 deep underground – and then eventually India.
His family has been involved in coal mining for generations in England and that career path combined with a fascination with the Wild West eventually landed him in Canmore.
Taking a giant leap back in history millions of years, Stephenson’s tour highlights how coal came to be in the Bow Valley and the geological forces that shaped it.
He said coal seams in the valley were originally flat, but the pressure that formed the Rocky Mountains also bent them and compressed them. The result was that coal in this area had to be accessed differently than a traditional mine.
“That is why from Dead Man’s Flats to Cascade Mountain in Banff you get these complex coal seams,” he said. “Because of all the heat on the coal seams, the sulphur gas was driven off, the ash and dirty material was driven off and the water driven off. What you have in a coal seam here is 70 per cent carbon and only .3 per cent sulphur.”
Stephenson said the local coal is semi-anthracitic – the most high energy content coal in North America. While very pure, he said that didn’t necessarily mean it was worth more, but it served very particular purposes.
“In all my 62 years of coal mining, this is the most complex, the most gassy, the most difficult mining situation I have ever encountered anywhere,” he said.
The very first mine, Mine No. 1, started in 1886 and Stephenson’s tour makes a stop in that very spot next to Canmore Creek, which originally eroded the rock at that time, exposing the coal.
“It exposed five different coal seams in this area, so people came to use the coal and then companies got leases and eventually you had the No. 1 mine of Canmore Mines Unlimited,” he said.
While that is where the mines began, Quarry Lake Park is one of the biggest legacies left from that era that is enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.
In fact, Stephenson was in charge of that reclamation project, among others. He said it is a lasting legacy of his work in Canmore over the years.
But that legacy is far from over, as development of Three Sisters lands continues to be an issue intertwined with mining history. One need only look to the sinkhole near Dyrgas Gate to realize development in that area is connected to the mining infrastructure from the past.
Stephenson left the mines before they closed and started his own company, Norwest. Eventually he was hired by the first developers and worked on Three Sisters from 1990 to 2000.
“One of the first things we did was look for old shafts, portals and also areas where the coal seam had been mined and caused the surface to collapse,” he said. “That, in many ways, was the most dangerous because there are areas quite frankly where you have a semi vertical seam, the gravel is on the surface, it does not collapse and suddenly it collapses.”
Stephenson said there is no such thing as 100 per cent mitigation of mine workings and as plans are made for the final areas of development in TSMV, he would like to see a more stringent screening process adopted by the municipality. It is a system developed by Stephenson and the original developers to determine where it was safe to build.
“The province, in my opinion, has done a lousy job of carrying on with that system,” he said, pointing to the Dyrgas Gate sinkhole as an example. “This winter I am writing a proposal to the Town and the province saying their present system is not working and it is creating future dangers we should be aware of.”
There are still three history tours with Stephenson scheduled for the summer, on July 18, Aug. 8 and 22 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information email [email protected] or call the museum at 403-678-2462.
