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![Power house and hoist buildings, Hillcrest mine, Hillcrest, Alberta. [ca.1920s]](javascript:Dynapop(2,'images/glenbow/na-2402-1_det.jpg','Power house and hoist buildings, Hillcrest mine, Hillcrest, Alberta. [ca.1920s] ',1))
Florence E. Kerr; Information from The Crowsnest Pass
Illustrated and Wm. Hutchinson's Memoirs, Courtesy of Margaret
Kibblewhite (daughter of David Hutchinson)
Hillcrest was born around the turn of the century and built up on the strength of the tremendous coal fields in the vicinity.
Charles Plummer Hill of Port Hill, Idaho, found rich coal outcroppings in the Crowsnest Pass in 1898. By 1902 he owned the mineral rights on land staked out to become Hillcrest Coal and Coke Company. By the 31st day of January 1905 that company was incorporated under the laws of the Dominion of Canada by letter patent with all the rights and privileges to mine coal, make coke, build and operate railroads, coke ovens, townsites, etc.
In 1905 the area which was to become the town was an expanse![Small engine and mine cars, Hillcrest mine, Hillcrest, Alberta. [ca.1920s]](javascript:Dynapop(2,'images/glenbow/na-2402-2_det.jpg','Small engine and mine cars, Hillcrest mine, Hillcrest, Alberta. [ca.1920s] ',1))
of timber. Trees were cut down and log shacks were built by and
for the workers. The first tasks in the mining development were
to lay out roads and a railway line to connect with the CPR
line at Hillcrest Junction. By 1910 Hillcrest station had been
built and side tracks for Hillcrest cars of coal had been put
in.
Water supply would be no problem, Drum Creek guaranteed ample of the purest.
The Hillcrest town-planners looked well into the future: main street was mapped to be 80 feet wide, other streets 66 feet.
Hillcrest Collieries had two methods of mining coal in
distinctly separate mines and planned to develop several more
mines. It had two methods of lowering its coal from the tram
road to the railroad, one a double track railway and lowering
gear system and one a Jeffrey retarding conveyor.)
Hillcrest semi-bituminous coal was high in fixed carbon, low in ash, free from clinkers and strong in its quality for generating steam. The CPR reserved their purchases for passenger trains.
Hillcrest Coal and Coke Co. owned the Hillcrest townsite as
well as the mine and all the buildings, railroad, timber limits,
water rights, etc. Mr. William Hutchinson accepted the position
of surveyor-engineer with Hillcrest Coal and Coke Co. and
arrived on May 10, 1910.![Crowsnest and Its People Millennium Edition](javascript:Dynapop(2,'images/covers/crowsnest_mill_det.jpg','Crowsnest and Its People<br>Millennium Edition</p> <p>The Crowsnest Pass at 4457 feet is the southern most major transportation corridor through the Rocky Mountains in Canada. Its beauty is most dramatically presented as one travels west from the plains. Folding, faulting and erosion has resulted in a an abrupt change of the landscape as the Livingstone, Flathead and Clark Ranges rise to greet the visitor. In the short distance from Lundbreck in the east, to Crowsnest on the Alberta-British Columbia border the land quickly changes from foothill ranching country to alpine cirques and rocky promontories. The effect of our not so gentle west winds are evident on the Burmis tree and other limber pine on the ridges east of Passburg.</p> <p>Crowsnest Pass Historical Society<br>Post Office Box 280<br>Coleman, Alberta.<br>T0K 0M0<br> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.telusplanet.net/public/cnmuseum/index.htm">Website</a>',0))
This article is extracted from Crowsnest and its People: Millennium Edition (Coleman, Alberta, Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, 2000). The Heritage Community Foundation and the Year of the Coal Miner Consortium would like to thank the authors and the Crowsnest Pass Historical Society for permission to reprint this material.
