A brief history of the Bow Valley's lost mining towns
by Rob Alexander
Tucked away in the Bow Valley's verdant forests are the remnants of four mining towns that bloomed and died all within the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise - all of which started around the same time - survived, but the communities of Anthracite, Bankhead and Georgetown lived only on the good graces of the markets for coal. Silver City, the fourth Bow Valley mining community that has long since vanished, was built on a lie.
Today Bankhead is the only one of the four ghost towns that can be readily found and imagined.
Anthracite, Georgetown and Silver City have slipped almost seamlessly back into the meadows and forests that cover the valley floor.
The discovery of coal in the Bow Valley in 1885 led the boom, driven by the Canadian Pacific Railway's (CPR) need for coal to fire its locomotives.
But when the bust came, it came quickly, forcing residents to pack their belongings and head for the more stable towns of Banff and Canmore. Many people chose to leave the Bow Valley and try their luck in mines and on farms throughout Alberta.
A huge slack heap on the site of the old mining town of Bankhead is evidence of coal mining activity near the town of Banff.
Silver City (1883-1885)
In the boom-bust fortunes of Bow Valley mining towns, Silver City had the shortest life span.
In 1883 word spread that silver had been found at the base of Castle Mountain west of Banff. Prospectors and miners immediately began to arrive, but the only people to find any riches were the men who staked the silver mine and founded the town. As it turned out, the mine, with only traces of silver in it, was the foil to draw people to town. The ruse worked and within two years the town boasted a population of 3,000 along with six hotels that also doubled as casinos.
Two years later, when the 3,000-odd residents of Silver City learned that the mine was a fake, they packed up and shipped out for other mining towns, still seeking their fortune. The buildings were torn down and a few were floated down the Bow River to Banff.
One man, a miner named Joe Smith, stayed on in Silver City, making his living by hunting and trapping. Smith died in 1937. All that marks Silver City today is a plaque that stands before a small meadow along the Bow Valley Parkway (1A Highway) that runs parallel to the Trans-Canada Highway roughly from Banff to Lake Louise.
Anthracite (1886-1904)
The bits and pieces of Anthracite are mostly hidden in the forest east of Johnson Lake, a small and idyllic fishing and swimming hole 10 minutes by car from Banff. One piece of Anthracite's puzzle can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway. Head west to Banff and stop just before the Minnewanka power station - a box of a building located on the north side of the highway. Here you will find a few hardy rhubarb plants - remnants of the gardens of the Chinese labourers who lived in the valley bottom near the slack heaps (piles of waste coals) at the base of the Anthracite mines.
In 1886, the Canadian Anthracite Mine Co. opened a seam at Anthracite attracting a number of miners, many of who were bachelors from Germany, Great Britain, Russia, across Canada, Italy, Sweden, Norway, China and the United States. By 1889, Anthracite's population was 167. The town died in 1904 when miners hit water, flooding the mine.
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An interpretive trail around the former Bankhead mining town leads past the old lamphouse. A visit to the site makes for an interesting afternoon exploring the history of the area.
Bankhead (1905-1922)
Before 1905 the railway relied on other mining companies to supply it with high-grade coal to power its fleet of locomotives. When it opened the mine at Bankhead in 1905, the CPR was able to cut out the middle man, and directly mined the coal it needed - a semi-anthracite coal that burned hot and clean - from the east-facing slopes of Cascade Mountain. At its inception Bankhead was the most modern town in the region, with electricity well before other communities in the Bow Valley.
Following a worldwide depression in the 1920s, the CPR closed Bankhead. After the town closed in June 1922, a number of the tiny Bankhead houses ended up in Banff and Canmore; most of which are now being torn down as the cores of both towns redevelop.
Of all the Bow Valley's past mining towns, Bankhead provides the clearest glimpse of life in a coal town. An interpretive trail winds through the mine site past huge slack heaps, the foundations of a few mine buildings, including the tipple and the walls of the lamp house. Up the hill from the mine site is the concrete foundation, including the stairs, of the Bankhead church, which sits alone in a small, but stunning meadow. Down the road a small cenotaph lists the names of Bankhead men who served overseas during the First World War.
Georgetown (1912-1915)
After Anthracite failed, the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company moved down the Bow Valley to a broad, flat shelf on the south side of the Bow River, where a new seam of coal offered another shot at a successful mining operation. Georgetown sprung up at the base of the mine in a long meadow. A number of small houses went up along with a community hall, store and bunkhouse.
An idle coal train is a reminder of the booming days of coal mining at Bankhead, which came to a close in 1922.
Scattered throughout the Georgetown site, now part of the Canmore Nordic Centre lands built for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, one can find tin cans, blackened and rotten boots, low concrete foundations and even a wood stove lying throughout the forest. The town site itself offers no clues as many of the houses, including the company store, were lifted onto skids and hauled down the Bow River to Canmore after the river had frozen. A few Georgetown houses still stand in Rundle Crescent on the south side of the river.
To reach Canmore, residents of Georgetown usually walked the five kilometres, or if they were lucky, caught a ride on the train that hauled coal to the CPR's main line.
Georgetown can be reached from Canmore by following the gently graded Georgetown trail - the old rail bed - which starts either at the Nordic Centre or behind the power station on the Bow River at the base of the Rundle forebay.
Georgetown saw its end shortly after the start of the First World War as the mine lost it markets. Canmore Mines Ltd. bought the mining operation in 1916 and closed the mine.
Rob Alexander was born and raised in Canmore, Alberta, and is currently working on a historical book on the community of Exshaw, 15 minutes' drive east of Canmore.
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