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Why Others Have EnduredFernie is a small town in the Elk Valley, just 5 km from the Coal Creek mine. With the opening of the mine and it's subsequent growth, Fernie began to boom as well. The Coal Creek Mine was situated in a steep, narrow valley which received very little sunlight in the winter months, and left very little room for community growth. Fernie, on the other hand was built in the open base of the Elk Valley - receiving more than its share of sunlight, having plenty of room to accommodate for further growth, and due to its distance from the mine it remained largely untouched by coal dust. Compared to Coal Creek, Fernie was an ideal location for settlement. Although the town was located some distance from the mine, the small MF&M railway that ran to Coal Creek from Fernie, provided transportation for miners who resided there.
Unlike Coal Creek, Morrissey or Hosmer, Fernie has survived the continuous rise and fall of the coal markets and in 1958 when the Coal Creek mine finally closed, Fernie still endured. The town was, in many ways, like the other coal mining communities in the Elk Valley. The Fernie town site was owned and operated by the Crowsnest Pass Coal Company until 1904. The town had bunkers and company housing for mine workers like the other mine towns, and many of its local business were heavily dependant on miners' wages. Although mining laid the foundations for Fernie’s growth and its similarities to the other mining communities were many, it was, in many ways very different. Two factors that weighed heavily in the survival of Fernie were the diversity of Fernie’s commercial interest and changing technology. |
Introduction | Elk Valley | The Kootenay Smelter | The Missing Link | Heat and Electricity | Pacific Steamships | The Strikebreakers on Vancouver Island
© MM Fernie & District Historical Society.
