Introduction

Why was Tumbler Ridge built?

A Big Project

Power Supply

Townsite of Tumbler Ridge

Building a New Town

A Community's Dependence on Mining

Why was Tumbler Ridge built?

Mackenzie and his team of explorers. Courtesy BC Government

There is one easy answer to this question- because of COAL!

Coal was first discovered in the Peace River area in 1793 by Alexander Mackenzie, an early explorer and adventurer. This coal was left untouched for almost 200 years, UNTIL…

The Japanese Steel Industry
In the mid-1960’s world technology and times were changing. People in North America and Europe were buying more cars than ever before and steel was being widely used in the construction of buildings, railways, bridges and many other things. Countries around the world needed steel and steel products.

Japan was and still is one of the largest steel producers in the world. What do you think they needed to produce steel?-COAL. Coal is turned into coke, which is a very important part of the steel making process. Because Japan is such a small country with limited natural resources and such a large steel industry, it needs to import millions of tonnes of coal every year.

This got British Columbia’s government thinking!

The BC Government

Now what do you suppose the government was thinking? It was very simple, the Japanese needed coal and BC had billions of tonnes of it. If they could get the coal out of the Peace River area, they could sell it and ship it to the Japanese; this would bring a lot of money into the province and create jobs for many people.

"BC Government Officials signing contract with Japanese investors."
Courtesy BC Government

Opening a coal mine in the Peace River area would be good for the province of BC in more than one way. The government had always dreamed of opening up northeastern BC. There were only a few small communities in the Peace River Region - if the government could help to open a coal mine in the area then hopefully people from all over BC and Canada would come to live and work there.

Helicopter during exploration tests. Courtesy BC Government

In the mid-1960’s the BC government began to explore the Peace River area. During their explorations they discovered that the coal fields held almost 8 billion tonnes of coal! That’s a lot of coal. The next thing that the government did was send out more exploration teams consisting of geologists, surveyors, engineers and technicians . Helicopters flew back and forth from many different test sites as coal deposits were found, tested and marked with stakes. After many years of exploration the government found that 300 million tonnes of the coal they had found could be mined.

In the late 1970’s the government began to work together with two coal companies. Their plan was to open two new coal mines in northeastern BC by the end of 1983. These two mines would be called Quintette and Bullmoose.

Almost 200 years after coal was first discovered in the Peace River Canyon things were going to change.

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