Coal Mountain and ghost towns

After that epic trip up Turtle Mountain….a quieter day seemed like a good idea.

It was time to spend a lazy day doing not much but dabbling our tired feet and legs in the creek.

The following day, we could not justify sitting still some more, but we were definitely not ready for any big ambitious hikes. Scott had been looking at some interesting ghost towns in the area and seemed like a change of pace with some potential of coolness.

The Crowsnest has been extensively mined for coal from the early days of the railroad to more recent and modern extraction of resources. As you drive west through the pass there are mountains that have been taken apart and put back together in the interests of removing the black stuff.

The first town on our list was Hosmer (click), near Sparwood. Sparwood is very much a mining community ….as you drive through the town there is a huge disused mining truck sitting out in a park as a tourist attraction.

We stopped where the GPS indicated the road to Hosmer should be right by a derelict looking seriously sketchy building (that we were later informed actually still operates as a pub…..!! 😲)

With the help of a local lady who was walking by we did find the road to the remnants of the Hosmer Mine which is now set up as system of walking and ATV trails.

It looked like the truck might not fit….and you definitely don’t want to meet anyone coming the other way….. but heck…having packed our seasoned sense of adventure …why not…!!!

There are quite a bit of the old buildings still standing, and the trails are well marked with information boards and posts.

With a promise of more ‘stuff’ up the incline we tackled the aptly named incline trail. There were rewards at the top with a house/building…….

…and more bits of the mine workings still evident.

We completely failed to find any part of the cemetery…but I did find a link online which suggests that there is more to see there…. the grass was tall (and those horrid little seeds get in your shoes and socks) so we gave up and headed out to the last bit which was the ‘tipple’ (I had never heard of a tipple either..!!)

Morrisey (click) was the next mission……

We found the trailhead and followed the logging road up to where the mine used to be. We were unsuccessful at finding any part of the town or the mine site. But there were some really healthy wild raspberries ….. 😁

Next stop was the town of Corbin (click). The townsite is up the road to Coal Mountain.

The mine was still in operation ’til very recently and is now used for training people for their other sites. The town itself is a combination of very old disused buildings from the original town and more modernized small houses that look like vacation/hunting cottages and very much in use. We were careful not to trespass.

With a stop on the way back out of town to see some of the older mine workings. (the newer part was through a private gate with active security)

The drive up to Corbin was quite beautiful and a very remote quiet road. All in all it was a good way to spend a day.

Extra pix