Coal mining in BC began over a century ago. Some of the first coal discoveries were made on Vancouver Island, where a large seam extended 140km along the east coast from Ladysmith, south of Nanaimo, to Campbell River.

In the early years, miners worked with simple hand tools and a small headlamp in dangerous conditions. With coal gas constantly seeping from the mines, proper air ventilation was rare, explosions and fires were common, and collapsing mineshafts sometimes trapped the workers underground.

Longwall mining was an early technique for removing coal that was encased in rock above and below the seam. After making a long horizontal cut in the coal seam, miners used sharp picks to pry out the soft coal. When enough was removed, they crawled in the vacant space in the seam and continued to cut the coal out while lying on their sides. In this cramped position, accidents were frequent. For example:

One old man had a hand pick drove right up through his nose here. Stuck on the roof and couldn’t get him out. I was the smallest there so I had to get out the saw and I went in there and cut the pick off. Got him out. Yeah, he survived.
[*see reference below]

When machines replaced longwall miners in 1905, the job became a little less onerous. Holes in the coal seam were cut mechanically and explosive shots used to loosen the coal. Muckers then cleared away the debris and loaders, working on their knees, shovelled the coal into pans that were in turn dumped into coal cars. Transported by train to the loading dock at Union Bay, the coal was shipped by sea to destinations like San Francisco.

 * Bowen, Lynne. Boss Whistle; the Coal Miners of Vancouver Island Remember.  Lantzville: Oolichan Books, ©1982.

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Cumberland Shantytown, (BCARS HP11672)