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| Important People |
Explorers
& Prospectors Discovery of
Coal
& Formation of
the Coal
Company & Railroad Coal
Company Investors |
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George Cox
George Cox was a prominent businessman who lived in Toronto, Ontario. Cox was one of the first major investors in the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company and its first President. His popularity as a wealthy businessman and politician helped him to promote the development and progress of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company to prospective investors. Cox also actively promoted the extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Elk Valley in the Toronto Globe, the newspaper he co-owned (now the Globe & Mail). Before moving to Toronto in 1888, George Cox was a prominent citizen of Peterborough, Ontario. He served as the city’s Mayor, and was President of the Midway Railway and the Central Loan and Savings Company. In Toronto, George Cox became even more involved in the business community. He was President of the Bank of Commerce, co-owner of the Toronto Globe, and the founder, president or director of forty other firms. He was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1896 by Sir Wilfred Laurier. George Cox also helped to bring an American rail line to the Elk Valley. Recognizing the market for coal and coke in the United States, Cox established a connection with Great Northern Railway owner James J. Hill. In May of 1901 an agreement was reached between the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company, James J. Hill and the provincial government whereby the Great Northern Railway was allowed to build a branch line from its mainline at Jennings, Montana across the border near Gateway Montana and into Flagstone BC. The railway then travelled through the South Country via Baynes Lake and into the Elk Valley passing through Elko, Fernie and Hosmer until it finally reached the end of its line in Michel.
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Formation
of the Coal Company and Railroad
Robert
Jaffray
