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This page last updated May 5, 2008

The view coming into Coalmont from Tulameen in 2001--meat market on the left, hotel on the right

The old boomtown-fronted Coalmont Meat Market building

The Coalmont Hotel's heyday was a lifetime ago, but (due in no small part to its liquor license) it continues in operation into its 10th decade. I first went there in 1974, I think it was, on a camping trip with a girlfriend in a Volkswagen van. The beer parlour in the hotel was a cheery place on that summer evening, presided over by an elderly man whose cap was studded with fishing flies and lures. We struck up a conversation with another old guy, had a few too many beers, and ended up driving him towards his home along a narrow, steep dirt road past the mouth of Granite Creek--in retrospect, I think he lived at the "Masters and Johnson" cabin which I discovered several years later, in another lifetime, as it were.

In the late 1970s I spent a lot of time in the Coalmont area, camping along the riverbank and sometimes walking into the hotel along the railway tracks for a beer and a little conversation. It was always a tough place--Coalmont, that is--populated by some of BC's home-grown hillbillies. For years there was a sign on the Coalmont Emporium, perhaps the only commercial building erected in town since 1912 (now the offices of a placer mining and surveying company), stating that women ought to beware as Coalmont was full of bachelors. Gradually, the populace has aged and moved away, with only the original general store (the left-hand one on the filmstrip below), the meat market and the hotel remaining from the early years of the century.

Photographs I took of the store, hotel and meat market in 1977

After many years of quiet deterioration, the Coalmont Hotel was purchased in 1995 by five people, with Jim McNeney as the majority owner. The hotel is now temporarily closed pending the appointment of a new manager. "Hopefully after a good cleaning, painting, and restocking of supplies the hotel will be up and running and back in business. We are targeting December 1, 2004 to reopen," wrote Robert McNeney.

According to handbills distributed throughout the Similkameen area in 2001, the Coalmont area is the "Snowmachine Capital of Canada," and the hotel has a "historic dining room, heritage rooms, and gold panners pub." The best hope for "civilizing" Coalmont is the bicycle tourists and hikers who come through on the TransCanada Trail--the old railway roadbed, the tracks of which were ripped up several years ago. Note from Bob Sterne, 2003: There is property for sale on our block.... price unknown.... and the General Store is for sale for $180,000...."

Bob and Diane Sterne have renovated "F.R.E.D.," as they call it--another of the old buildings. "Since we last talked, Diane & I have had a long chat with Walt Smart, who used to be the Postmaster in Coalmont, as was his father, James.... His dad ran the P.O. when it was in the old building, which was a TWIN to our cabin, located immediately to the right of where F.R.E.D. stood on Parrish Ave.... They were both built in 1911, and we haven't found what FRED was used for originally, but in the 1930's he was an Ice Cream Parlour.... When Walt became the Postmaster in 1952, he moved the operation into the Coalmont General Store, across the Street, and the old Post Office was burned down some years later.... probably to make way for the Coalmont Emporium, which Walt built.... FRED was the building in the 1970 photo in Bill Barlee's book (and on our website), but by that time, the original Post Office was long gone.... Sometime between 1970 and 1977, FRED was dragged across the street to the corner we now own."

Note from Pat Dolden: My mother, still living,was born in Coalmont July 11,1924. I would think that there are not many alive today that can say they were actually born there. My grandfather's brother, Frank Dollemore was the original owner of the Similkameen Hotel .Frank sold the hotel and he and my grandfather Dan Dollemore joined ,what I believe was ,the second C.M.R's (Canadian Mounted Rifles). A Mr. Ben Barlow was married to my great grandmother, her daughter Kathlene married Dan Dollemore . Ben Barlow actually opened one of the very first fruit stands in Kereomeos. Frank's hotel was in Hedley.

Photo by an anonmyous BC Government employee, 1955

 

 

The coal bunkers on the outskirts of Coalmont were still very visible in the 1970s but have all but disappeared today. The fields have grassed over and the dry breeze rattles through the cottonwoods and aspens.

Coalmont stories, anyone?

Note from Bonnie Dickson: my grandfather puchased the Blakeburn buildings in the 40'sÊ My father and grandfather dismantled the buildings and moved them to Keremeos. Although any remaining lumber or portions of the buildings have disapeared, we are in posession of a double-ended outhouse, the only remaining building that we know of from Blakeburn.Ê We have attempted to locate a museam interested in the building. AlthoughÊmy father, who is now deceased, said someone was interested he was never contacted. If youÊare ever in contact with anyone interested in the knowing more about the building please let me know. [Ed. let me know and I'll pass it on]

Note from Peter Smith: My Grandfather and two of his brothers were killed at Blakeburn August 1930 and are buried in Princeton cemetery. My Grandmother returned to Scotland with her children. I am now the oldest surviving Smith. [My grandmother] was a tough lady, just imagine travelling back to the Eastern side of Canada with four children, the oldest was 8 years (My Father) the youngest was a babe in arms. Then the boat trip back to Scotland. Hard life.

Note from Alaini Vlassopoulos: I am the great-granddaughter of Thomas Gibson, one of the miners that died in the mine at Coalmont Collieries. My grandfather worked there with his father but didn't go to work that day of the explosion. His father died and he was left to take care of his mother and sisters. He was about 16 years old at the time and he had to go back into the mine and work after his father died in it. I know it bothered him to go back to work there. I remember he showed me a book that showed where his father was found dead inside the mine. I don't remember must else as I was pretty young at the time. Do you know the placement of the bodies at the cemetery--I wanted to know what spot my great-grandfather was in. I was just at the cemetery this past weekend. I wrote a note and I left flowers. Could you tell me if you know anything else about it?

If you have any information about the victims or the gravesite please contact Alaini directly.

Note from Carole Hurst née Upton: I am the granddaughter of Cornelius Hupton who died in the pit disaster in 1930. I never met my granddad as he died when my dad was only 3 yrs old and his sister only 1, he himself was only 27. I have recently been tracing my family tree and believe me, even though he is only two generations away it has been very hard to find information about him as all the people involved with my granddad are now dead and because his wife married again he seems to have been forgotten (until now). I have since found that his wife and young children were to have joined her husband just before she found he had died and that her two brothers-in-law were also at the mine but survived. I literally have nothing at all about him except a long forgotten story about him dying in a mine in Canada and I knew it must have been in the 30's. Therefore I have been trawling the Canadian websites. I am now trying to trace his life and death but I am not having much luck as I am in England, but I will keep trying. That is why, when I came across your web site with the photograph of the headstone I could not believe it!

Shannon Bradley is also a descendant of Cornelius Upton, and is seeking family information -- please contact her through me.

Photo by Alaini Vlassopoulos

Note from Robert Murray, Merritt: I was born in Blakeburn the year before the explosion in # 4 mine and lived there until operations ceased in 1940. My uncle George Murray was the mine manager, my father Robert S. Murray was pitboss from 1925 to 1940, my uncle Dave Murray was a compressor and lamp cabin attendant.ÊFortunately they were not at work when the explosion occurred and we all left the area in 1940.

I have returned to visit my old home town on several occasions but unfortunately, Mother Nature has now pretty well reclaimed it. The picture below shows the main seam outcrop as it appeared on my last visit in the fall of 2003.

There have been two books written on Blakeburn - the first was by an author named Don Blake and was published by Skookum Publications Ltd. of Penticton B.C. in 1985. The title is "Blakeburn From Dust to Dust", it is now out of print. I was never able to contact this gentleman as it was before the communication revolution. There are still copies available at a fairly high price on the internet. I have two copies and am keeping them for my two sons. This book also had a fold out map of the underground workings of #3, #4 and #5 Pits in the front and a fold out map of #4 Pit after the explosion in 1930. I can try to send you these in two section PDFs if you want - let me know. The second book just came out this year and is available through the author, Terry Melanchuck's web site I have read this new book and it is quite good for researching a subject so long after its demise. I have been in contact with Mr. Melanchuck and have sent him some material from my memories of the town plan.