Leitch (Passburg) Collieries
Description of Historic Place
Leitch (Passburg) Collieries is a collection of structures and remains from a coal mining and processing operation from the pre-World War One era. It is located on 5.565 hectares in a rural setting at the east end of the Crowsnest Pass just north of Highway 3, and is managed by the Government of Alberta as an interpreted historic site.
Heritage Value
Leitch (Passburg) Collieries represents the development of coal mining in the Crownest Pass, one of the major coal producing areas in Canada at the turn of the twentieth century. This was one of the largest and most ambitious mines in the Pass but its short-lived activity illustrates the volatile nature of the coal mining industry. It was also the only company in the Pass that was fully Canadian owned and operated.
Leitch (Passburg) Collieries were located on Police Flats, named after a North West Mounted Police (NWMP) detachment located there between 1883 and 1901 to control cattle rustlers. Coal was discovered here in 1906 and the Leitch Collieries opened in 1907, near the Canadian Pacific Railway line, which would need a steady supply of coal for its steam locomotives. To the west, the town of Passburg took shape to house the miners and their families.
However, the coal proved to be of poor quality for the purposes of producing coke for the smelting of ores, and only a small number of the 101 coking ovens were ever used. The company failed in 1916 under a burden of debt and a loss of markets, due in part to a 1911 general strike and the outbreak of the First World War. Most buildings in Passburg were moved to the nearby mining town of Bellevue but the remains of the tipple, powerhouse, coke ovens, and manager's house are in situ resources that exemplify a mining operation of this period.
Site features
- remains of the roadbed for spur line along north boundary of site;
- sandstone quarry cut into hillside above the east end of the coking ovens;
- remnants of the road to Passburg at the northwest corner of the site;
- spatial relationships of built components within the industrial site reflecting colliery operations;
- site of the NWMP post immediately east of the power house;
- archaeological remains;
- exposed, steeply dipping rock outcrops and views of surrounding mountains hint at the geology of this coal-producing area.
From the Alberta Register of Historic Places