Introduction

Explorers & Prospectors
   William Fernie
   Michael Phillipps
   Peter Fernie
   Colonel James Baker

Discovery of Coal &
the Crowsnest Pass

Formation of the Coal Company & Railroad

Coal Company Investors
   George Cox
   Robert Jaffray
   Henry Pellatt

Tom Uphill

Robert Jaffray

Robert Jaffray Backtracking with FDHS

Robert Jaffray, Vice-President of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company, was responsible for a majority of the publicity that the company received. As President of the Toronto Globe newspaper, he regularly published reports on the progress of the mine.

Even before the Canadian Pacific Railway had arrived in the Elk Valley, Robert Jaffray explored the extensive coal seams here. He then traveled to many of the major metals mines and smelters in the Kootenays, proclaiming "the best coal is the Crow’s Nest Pass coal."

Robert Jaffray resigned as Vice-President from the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company in 1909 after Henry Pellatt sold his shares to James J. Hill. Hill now held over half the company’s shares. Jaffray did not want to be head of a company that was tainted with "Americanism".

George Cox		Henry Pellatt