“You ever walked much in the bush?” Clara asked her. Her voice was gravelly, as if she were a heavy smoker, and she was abrupt.
“No. Just that trail. From our house to the beach. Dad always told us there were abandoned mineshafts and it was too dangerous.”
“He was right,” Clara said. “The shafts are here and here. The chapel is between them, in a clearing right here.” Hell’s Half Acre.
Every so often, I am rudely reminded of Vancouver Island’s coal mining history, when a spurt of coal dust erupts from our shower head.
We live near Nanaimo, and the wells on our property are deep enough to expose seams of coal. When it rains hard, an abandoned mine shaft on our neighbour’s property spews water, like a mini-fountain.
It’s said that there are miles and miles of underground tunnels criss-crossing the area. One tunnel was found under the Bank of Montreal, downtown Nanaimo. Hmm. Definitely a story there, I think!
No surprise then, that the underground history gets a mention in more than one Coffin Cove mystery !
Recently the province and various conservation groups have been working hard to preserve some of the remnants of Coal History.
About mile or so away from us, is the old Morden Mine site. Earlier this year, BC Parks announced that resfurbishment of a 108 year old structure had finished.
The mine was built by the Pacific Coal Company. It included a 22.5-metre headframe and tipple structure — the first of its kind.
The concrete headframe and tipple was designed to move coal into railroad cars for transport. It is one of only two structures of its kind in existence in North America and is a designated National Historic Site.
My husband recalls climbing the old concrete structure when he was young. Terrifying!
I love to include references to local history in my novels, and hopefully, if you happen to visit Vancouver Island, you’ll take a hour or so to take a stroll around the Morden Mine site.