Coalspur is a nearly abandoned coal-mining and railroad town in

Yellowhead County Yellowhead County is a municipal district in west central Alberta, Canada. It is the only municipal district within Alberta census division No. 14. History *1994: Established as a ''Municipal District of Yellowhead No. 94'' on January 1. ...

, Alberta. It is situated on Highway 47 beside the Embarras River in the foothills of the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

History

Coalspur was established during the construction of the Alberta Coal Branch, a spur line of the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

(later the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

) during 1911–1912. Located where the east and west lines diverged, it was home to the railroad construction camp and became a

transport hub A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between mode of transport, transport modes. Public transport hubs include train station, railway stations, metro station, rapid transit stations, bus ...

with a roundhouse and repair shops. It later became the headquarters for the Brazeau Forest Reserve and the

Alberta Provincial Police The Alberta Provincial Police (APP) was the state police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Alberta, Canada, from 1917 to 1932. The APP was formed as a result of the Royal North-West Mounted Police ...

. Soon after the railroad arrived in 1912, a group of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

financiers An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of i ...

founded the Yellowhead Pass Coal and Coke Company. The original Yellowhead Mine near Coalspur employed 70 men, produced 500 tons of coal per day, and sustained the small community. At the peak of production the mine employed 400 men. A massive underground fire occurred in 1915 and again in 1922. The mine closed in 1923, although other mines in the area continued to operate until the 1950s. One of the earliest

oil wells An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsatur ...

in the central Alberta

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

was drilled near Coalspur. In 1924

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited () is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, ...

sank a test well near the community, and discovered a significant flow of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

that was used to heat

boilers A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central ...

in the mining camp. No commercial quantity of

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

was found however, and drilling ceased near Coalspur,Ralph L. Rutherford, ''Geology of the Foothills Belt between McLeod and Athabaska Rivers,'' (Edmonton: King's Printer, 1925), 60. although several natural gas fields were later discovered in the Coal Branch area. The population throughout the Coal Branch area declined during the 1950s as the railroads replaced

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s with

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

, and the mines closed due to lack of markets. The Coalspur post office, which opened in 1914, closed in 1963. As of 2001, the community was home to a dozen or so residents.

References

{{Reflist Localities in Yellowhead County