Abandoned a Century Ago

There were once hundreds of underground coal mines scattered across Alberta, but most were gone by the 1960s. Some we’re in service of industry and the material used for power generation, by steam locomotives, for steel making and a million other uses. Others supplied domestic coal, used for heating homes and businesses. Here’s a look at the flooded airway of one that falls into the former category and abandoned a century ago.

Coal mines, in particular are fully of nasty gases, and without proper ventilation, it’d disastrous.

This particular operation was in business for about twenty years and closed just as World War One was winding down. In that time they extracted some 1.5 million tonnes of the material from the bowels of the earth and that’s no small amount. It was done all by hand.

If you look in back, you can see large metal doors securing the entry and sulphur in the ground gives the water that milky blue hue. There’s something spooky about flooded mines and so we didn’t doodle here.

Some early surface workings…
Tofield Coal Mines – also flooded.

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Date of adventure: August, 2021.
Location: Middle of Nowhere, AB.

The flooded airway of a mine abandoned a century ago.