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

A Big Project

If two big coal mines were going to open in the Peace River Region then there were many things that the government of British Columbia needed to do. They would have to build an entire transportation system, bring in a power supply and build a new town.

Transportation Systems:

Railway:
Because the coal was over 1000 km away from a sea port it would need to be transported by train to the west coast. The Canadian Northern Railway already had a main line that traveled through northern BC from Prince George to Prince Rupert. The British Columbia Railway had a rail line that ran from Prince George up to Chetwynd. Chetwynd was the closest town to the minesites but it was still over 100 km away! A railway had never been built into the area of the Peace River region that was soon to be mined; in the past no one had lived there so there had never been a need for one.

Map of Rail lines in northern BC

Laying rails for the new rail line. Courtesy of BC Government

A railroad was needed to transport the coal out of Tumbler Ridge, so the BC government hired BC Railway to build a branch line. This new branch line would be 129 km long, and would run from a point in its main line, 100 km north of Prince George, to the two new coal mines. To build the railway, BC Rail would need to make two large tunnels that were 6 and 9 kilometers long to allow the train to pass through the mountains. The railway and tunnels took them close to two and a half years to finish.

This was a lot of work! Why were they doing it?
Because of COAL!

Train hauling coal from Quintette mine. Courtesy of Teck Corporation

Can you see how a natural resource like coal and the railways are closely connected? The coal companies need the railway to transport coal to their customers. If the rail line was not constructed then the coal probably would not have been mined. We can also see that without the need for coal the railway would never have been built. They both depend on each other.

Sea Port:
What was going to happen to the coal once it reached the west coast?
A deep sea port was needed in order to ship the coal to the Japanese; so the government of BC decided to build a coal loading facility on Ridley Island. This is just south of Prince Rupert. This terminal would be able to hold up to 12 million tonnes of coal a year and load 8,000 tonnes of coal onto a ship in one hour.³ This would be equal to loading 1600 full grown elephants or 80 blue whales. The blue whale is the largest animal on earth and can weigh over 100 tonnes.

"Coal being loaded on ship at Ridley Island Terminals."
Courtesy of BC Government

The Shoryu Maru was the very first ship to take Bullmoose and Quintette coal from the Ridley Island Terminal to Japan. The first shipment of coal was loaded onto this ship on January 7, 1984; close to 3 years after construction of the port began.

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