The Story of Italians in Fernie, 1881 - 1921 The Story of Italians in Fernie, 1881 - 1921 Fernie Museum
Strikes took place in 1903, 1906 and 1911. The 1911 strike at Coal Creek and Michel involved 6,000 men and lasted eight months.
United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners Local 1220 in front of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company office, Labour Day, Fernie on Labour Day May 1, 1909.
Single men and men whose wives were in the old country lived in such accommodation.
By 1904, the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company operated 1,188 coke ovens in the region. In the ovens, coal was heated resulting in an almost pure carbon used […]
Italians made up a significant portion of the workforce at Coal Creek. Twenty-eight Italians were killed in the 1902 disaster that had a total of 128 fatalities.
William Fernie and Philip Carosella at the opening of the “Peter” seam, Coal Creek, BC, 5 miles east of Fernie, 1889. Carosella became a prominent Fernie entrepreneur.
The railway station became the hub of the community and represented prosperity. Communities that were ignored by the railways became ghost towns. In 1990, the station was relocated […]
The CPR completed its line through Fernie in 1898.
The mine was owned by the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company and the town comprised 45 houses with light and water, a church and a Trites Wood Company […]
Homes were wood frame with a kitchen/living room and one or two bedrooms. The outhouses were located in the backyards. Many Italians worked in the mines and lived […]
The town of Coal Creek near Fernie, BC, nd, grew up around the mine. The 1901 census listed 69 men of Italian origin working in the mines and, […]
A birds eye view of Fernie, BC deemed to be “The Pittsburg of Canada” by the media and the Board of Trade.
