Michel – Natal – Middletown – a trio of coal mining communities sent to oblivion

About 15 minutes after westbound travelers on Hwy. 3 in the Crowsnest Pass cross the Alberta – British Columbia border, they enter the short and narrow Michel Creek Valley where the town of Michel used to be. A little further was Middletown, and just beyond was the community of Natal. All three coal mining communities – separated less than a kilometer from each other - have vanished. The only reminder of the past that is left is the Michel Hotel. What may come to mind is a passage in the editors’ foreword in the book, "The Forgotten Side of the Border.” “It is as if the history of the region has been swept away – forgotten and uncared for,” wrote editors Wayne Norton and Naomi Miller.

For more than seven decades the communities – more often than not dirty, grimy and choked with coal dust - were the heart of coal mining in B.C.’s Crowsnest Pass.

Michel was the first, established after the Crow’s Nest Coal Company opened a mine site in 1899. The town, which had almost 500 residents by 1901, was considered the commercial centre in the valley. It was here miners and their families were offered company homes to live. It was also the location for the last hospital, a 19-bed, three-story structure located across Michel Creek from the Michel Hotel.

With the Canadian Pacific Railway eager to transport coal, the Michel mine was producing 11,000 tons by 1901. Three years later, Michel’s trio of mines was producing 235,250 tons of coal. With the growing success at the Michel mines, the town’s population mushroomed to 1,200 by 1907.

The community of Natal was established in 1907, and until 1910 was known as Newtown or New Michel. When a town site was laid out that year workers were given the chance to own their homes. Natal was considered the cultural centre in the valley, housing three of the four hotels in the valley, a movie theatre, an opera house and later a basketball hall.

In later years, the tiny community of Middletown, which had about 40 homes, sprang up between Michel and Natal. In “The Forgotten Side of the Border” former Middletown resident Reno Fabbro said between his town and Michel were the mine buildings, structures and entrances, including the tipple, coke ovens, wash house, power plant and offices. Fabbro said between Middletown and Natal were the school, ball field, United Church, Catholic Church, convent and the parish hall.

“In Middletown, there was room for three unequal rows of houses, bordered by Michel Creek on one side and the highway, railroad, some of the coke ovens and a service road on the other,” wrote Fabbro. “At the eastern end of Middletown were located the slag dumps. “The air was not clean, especially on a windy day,” he continued. “Outhouses, summer kitchens, wooden sidewalks, picket fences, coal sheds and wood sheds were typical outside features of most homes.”

Although the three towns had an active and healthy social atmosphere, complete with a multitude of sporting activities, clubs, and cultural events, life was difficult with the always present danger in the mines. There were many fires and mine disasters right from the earliest years of production, including seven killed in an explosion in 1904, and another 13 in 1916. On July 5, 1938, a lightning bolt traveled 1,200 metres into the Michel mine workings along the steel rails of an underground railway and ignited a pocket of gas. Three miners lost their lives in the resulting explosion. There were many more tragedies at the Michel mines but none as catastrophic as the April 3, 1967 disaster at the Balmer North mine when a blast killed 15 miners and injured another 10.

The 1967 tragedy was considered the final nail in the coffin for the communities of the Michel Creek Valley. By the 1950s, demand had already decreased for coal as oil and natural gas had moved in as the preferred resource fuel for consumers. As well, the rise in tourism in southeast British Columbia had brought growing adverse attention to the Michel Creek communities, which were always coated with soot, grime and layers of coal dust. Middletown had faded as a community by the 1950s. In 1964, the B.C. government, concerned by the ugliness and potential environmental disaster the valley presented for visitors, ordered that the residents be relocated to nearby Sparwood, which had been established in 1939 to be home for mine managers. By the 1960s, Sparwood was the centre for the burgeoning coal export industry, and was considered much cleaner and attractive than the Michel Creek Valley communities.

A photo of Michel’s mine colliery buildings in 1986. These buildings were left abandoned in the 1970s, and finally demolished in 1997. They were the last remnants of the Michel’s historic mining days.
Photo courtesy Ron Brown.

The government had hoped relocation would be finalized by 1968, but many residents in Michel and Natal were dismayed with the decision and were firm in their decision to stay as long as they could. However, by 1978 the bulldozers had won out, and the communities were demolished. Mine operations had come to an end.

In September, 1997, the colliery buildings in Michel – which had sat empty for more than two decades - were bulldozed, the last significant evidence of the valley’s historic coal mining era. The sites of Michel, Natal and Middletown have all been reclaimed, and the ghosts have taken over.