Commander Mine 1935-1956

These old and decrepit coal cars were found scattered about the forgotten Commander Mine site (earlier and briefly, the Sterling Mine) in the Red Deer River Valley of Alberta. They were abandoned back in the 1950s, with the closing of the mine, and have been here ever since. Tossed aside when no longer needed, they rest atop waste dumps made of material which these very cars may have transported. Some are sinking into the ground.

We suppose they were of little to no value to salvagers after the mine closed. Almost everything else got removed, yet these were seemingly ignored.

This is a post from over ten years ago that due to a system crash, has been reworked and presented as new. It needed some polishing and updates anyway. Rather than simply restore from backups and take the easy path, it got a nice makeover. We’re using original photos but the information is more up to date.

We’ve visited this site many times with permission over the years and remind folks it’s not public access. It’s a dangerous site too, with lots of sinkholes and sharp metal bits under foot. Photos are from a couple visits and the most recent being from 2013. Most of the data for this post comes from Government Mine Records and these are generally pretty accurate.

Fossilized wood at the Commander Mine.

Save for these coal cars, there’s little evidence to indicate the mine ever existed. Unless you look hard and doing this helps to piece together a picture of sorts. There’s the waste dump, a tram tower, odd foundations and bits of metal. Not much really, considering the scale of the operation back in the day, but enough fragments to give clarity.

The first mine here was called the Sterling (sometimes spelled Stirling) and work began in 1914. The Sterling Coal Company ran the show but called it quits after about four years. The operation looked rather modest in scale. The plant included a small tipple, a headframe with hoist and a single railway loading track.

In 1935 it restarted as the Commander Mine by Regal Coal. A couple years later, the Commander Coal Company took over and in this period during the depression output remained relatively low. Old photos from the time show the Commander Mine name proudly displayed on the tipple for all to see.

During World War Two output increased manyfold and employee ranks swelled. In response a larger tipple, with many loading tracks, and a new headframe/hoist were installed. At this point, any vestiges of the old Sterling Mine and earlier incarnations of the Commander Mine were likely gone. Pictures from this boom period show what looks to be a new and modern plant.

Boxcars were used for shipping coal and that’s typical for the time. Loading would be by a conveyor system, but to unload at the customer’s end would often mean shoveling it out by hand. No work proved more backbreaking or dirty than emptying a coal boxcar.

The Commander Mine continued into 1956. From 1949 on Century Coals owned the mine and this company ran one others in the valley. One of their properties became the very last coal mine in the region in fact (closed early 1980s) and the only one still standing today. It’s the storied Atlas Mine and it’s an historic site you can visit. We haven’t visited in years, but should.

A 1959 photo found in an archives shows the Commander Mine tipple still standing and it appears intact. That they left behind in this manner hints they may have held out hope that the mine could reopen.

Much output from mines in the valley was for domestic use (so for home heating and cooking), but that market dried up starting in the 1950s. That’s when many folks converted to natural gas and ditched coal. Still, it continued to be used as a domestic fuel into the 1960s and even the 1970s, but on a smaller and smaller scale. The few mines in the valley still operating hung on to serve that shrinking market, but later closed one by one.

The grassy mounds are overgrown mine dumps and this is where all the undesirable material ended up. So tiny coal pieces, waste rock, slate or clay mixed in with the coal and sometimes fossils too. This slack got transported by way of a suspended cable tramway and remarkably one of the towers remained on these visits.

Someone dug into one of piles and exposed the material under the thick matt of vegetation. The always present orange shale seen at every mine dump in the region can be seen here.

The coal cars are scattered about atop these dumps and there must be a couple dozen at least. Some appear to be tossed about randomly and others lined up in an orderly fashion. These are typical coal cars for the area and this is based on others we’ve seen at various former mines in the valley.

Coal seams in the area were thin compared to many other regions of the province, but the diggings were easy and the markets close. Thin seams (most under a couple metres) meant low tunnels and hence why the cars are low profile.

Some coal mines used rotary dump to empty the cars but here they used an end dump setup instead. Cars were tilted and the coal flowed out via an end door that hinged up.

These coal cars are simple affairs, with steel wheels and framing. The bodies were of wood and this could easily be replaced as it wore down from use. They used a simple chain coupling system with large metal bumpers to adsorb any run-in slack action. Hooking and unhooking must have been a dangerous operation and no doubt fingers were lost.

Every car here is the same as every other.

These cars were subject to hard use and the mine’s workshop kept busy fixing or rebuilding them. In some pictures from the 1940s, some of these exact cars can be seen at the surface presumably waiting to be repaired. Outside of dumping and repair, they rarely saw the light of day. These likely date from the time the mine expanded around World War Two. Still, the design of these changed little over time and some could be from earlier and perhaps even the Sterling Mine era.

These cars would be loaded at the coal face and then dragged to the lifting hoist (this was a shaft entry mine) where they would be brought to the surface to be weighed and dumped. Once in the tipple the coal would be cleaned and sorted and then loaded on to rail cars or trucks for local delivery. Then back down into the bowels of earth they’d go. These cars are small and could hold perhaps a few tons of material, give or take.

They were moved about the mine, at least in the 1940s and later period (based on photo evidence), by battery locomotives. Earlier horses may have been used and it’s possible other forms were in use here at some point. Either concurrent or in place of. Trolley and compressed air locomotives were common too.

The metal remains of something is seen near the dumps and it’s a section of the tipple. A large bull wheel sits on its side not far away. It looks to be a main pulley for the hoist and pictures from the 1940s clearly show a number of wheels looking exactly like it at the top of the head frame (plus one on the ground – maybe a spare?).

A number of foundations and such are seen at the site including what is presumed to be the sealed mine entrance, covered with a cap of concrete. We did not venture close due heavy rain and this made that low lying area a quagmire of mud. Slick, gooey and heavy Drumheller area mud. It’s legendary!

This was one of the larger mines in the valley. In the Sterling period, they extracted some 45k tonnes, but in it’s later incarnation as the Commander, that swelled to almost 1.7 million tonnes. The workings extended back a kilometre and a half. They mined the Drumheller #1 Seam (one of many seams in the valley) and it averaged about 1.7m thick in the area.

To put that production into perspective…that’s maybe 35k-40k boxcars of the era. Day in and day out, the coal moved. If added together that’s a train some four hundred plus kilometres long and that’s eye opening. By today’s standards that’s nothing, but for the time a decent producer.

The mine initially was served by a long spur off the Canadian Northern’s Alberta Midland line located a about a kilometre away. Later, during the Commander Mine era, the CPR served it off its Langdon Subdivision branch which come through in the 1920s and which passed right by the site.

The CPR’s Langdon Sub came in from its namesake town in the Calgary area to tap the vast coal deposits in and around Drumheller. They also did a good business hauling grain in the old days. The railway abandoned this line in the the early 1980s but the other (a CN property since about 1920) lasted into the 2000s.

There is no evidence of the CPR tracks and it appears that the highway was built over top of the grade. Space here is tight and between the valley walls and the river there not much flat ground.

They’ve been here since it closed in 1956.

We last visited this site about a decade ago but pass by often. From outwards appearances it doesn’t look all that different, but the view is too distant to say for sure.

These images were shot in print film, slide film and a wholly inadequate digital camera.

Know more about coal mining in the valley: (new tab): History of Drumheller Area Coal Mines.

They’re saying…

“Can we all take a moment to appreciate how great this website is?” Monica & Leslie.

Random awesomeness…
The Lonely Laing House (1910s).
Highway History (BC): the Garbage Gobbler.
On the Job: ’73 Kenworth W925.
Moodonna & Child.

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Date of adventure: Fall 1992 (twice) and May 2013.
Location: Red Deer River Valley, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Alberta Energy Regulator, Geoffrey Lester, Canadian Trackside Guides, UofC Photo Archives and the book, Hills of Home – Drumheller Valley.

From 2013…

Sinking into the ground.

Most everything else was removed, yet these were left behind.

The end dump set up is seen here.

There were dozens and dozens of these cars.

They were simple but worked well.

They were coupled together using chains.

Each car is the same as the next.

The coal cars sit atop this waste material dump.

A tramway tower.

From 1992 and shot on print film…

The Commander Mine decades before.

It was one of over a hundred coal mines in the area.

It hadn’t changed much from 1992 to 2013.

From 1992 and shot on slide film…

Remains of the tipple and a hoist wheel.

Many cars are scattered about haphazardly.

There were a lot of them here at the Commander Mine.

The valley is gorgeous in the fall.