Just west of Fernie, BC July 26, 2015

Morrissey Mines is an abandoned coal operation just west of Fernie, BC. This is one of many old coal ventures that litter the Elk Valley.

Named “Morrissey” for James Morrissey, a local pioneer. In existence from about 1902 to 1904. Morrissey Mines is where CNP Coal built their coke ovens. The townsite was not that far away.

A quick internet search provided some history and background. Coke is made by heating coal in huge ovens to expel the volatiles (methane, hydrogen, tar and ammonia). What is left is the fixed carbon. Coke is up to 75.00% lighter than coal, making it less expensive to transport and easier to handle. At the time it was the fuel of choice for smelting ore. 

The coal in Morrissey was initially found to be nearly ash-free. Lots of coke ovens were built. The coal proved difficult to coke. The rock structure was dangerously unstable, and the mines were difficult to work. On August 6, 1903 the No.1 mine had blown-out. No one was killed. Two months later, on October 14, 1903, methane gas suffocated four miners. The coal was showing to be of inconsistent quality. On the November 18, 1904, fourteen miners were killed in a methane gas blowout. The mine was closed after this incident. 

The town of Morrissey had a brief revival as a World War I internment camp.Today there is not much that remains. I had seen the coke overns years ago and I thought I would take a quick detour when I was in Fernie to see if I could find them again. The coke ovens are heavily overgrown. If you did not know to look for them, you might not see them.

The ovens are just on the right, heavily obscured.

There are a couple of these signs posted. The coke ovens are behind this one. Since I was by myself I was not going to get carried away exploring.

No idea where this leads.

You can barely make out the brickwork through the trees.

The opening to a coke oven is just behind this tree.

There must be over one hundred of these.

It had rained heavily just recently. The ground was wet, slick, and muddy in some places. A place I will have to come back to another day.

Blog note

For anyone out there that reads this site I thought I would mention that I post items in no particular date order. Posts kind of jump all over the place in terms of time and place, things do not follow a linear progression here from day to day. I do date items whenever I was at a certain place though. 

The highway to High Level, Alberta August 1, 2015

It is a long empty drive. This is Highway 35, the road that will end in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. Ages passed without seeing another car. There is prairie and also a lot of muskeg. 

Lots of muskeg with lots of beaver dams. Many old beaver dams. In fact I cannot recall seeing as many as I did during the ride.

Yellow sweet clover.

Fireweed. I haven't seen this since I lived in northern British Columbia.

Spur of the moment adventures

The first Monday in August is a long weekend in Alberta. Friday July 31 after work I rode my motorcycle from Airdrie to Drayton Valley to visit my mother which is about three hours travel time. 

Saturday morning in Drayton Valley, Alberta on August 1 I found myself thinking "I wonder if I can pull this off?" I had wanted to do a road trip to get to the northernmost ferry in Alberta however I was lacking in travelling companions. In other words, this would be a solo trip if I decided to do this. On a whim I decided to see if I could make it to the La Crete Ferry in northern Alberta and back in a weekend to the Drayton Valley area. From Drayton Valley to High Level is at least 737km. Along the way I took the Shaftesbury Ferry crossing the Peace River. I spent Saturday night in High Level. The route highlighted in dark blue is the route I took to the Shaftesbury Ferry.

From there I crossed the river over to Grimshaw and straight north to High Level.

On the way back August 2 there was a side trip to the La Crete Ferry which was another 32km from the junction and back. Once back to the junction I took the same route all the way back to the Drayton Valley area. Instead of spending Sunday night in Drayton Valley I stayed at a friend's place outside Drayton Valley. According to my Google calculations this would be 764km on day two. 

So I figure I did close to one thousand miles in two days. Most of the trip was uneventful, there is not a lot to see and a lot of it looks the same. Also, speed limits north of Mayerthorpe seem to be a suggestion, no one drives the limit. I was routinely passed by people driving high rates of speed. 

I spent Monday riding back to Airdrie from Genesee.

Photos and notes will eventually follow.

I will admit to being stiff after this. 

Orion, Alberta.

Founded in 1916 and once home to about one hundred fifty people. The area was hard to farm and that likely doomed the town. That and it is very remote. There are parts of southern Alberta that would have prospered as farmland for the want of irrigation years ago. There are very few residents left here, it is mainly a collection of old and empty buildings. I think one, maybe two houses look occupied. There is a church that is relatively new and was holding a service. A sign on the highway says gas and groceries are available. I drove through and I am not sure where any services were offered.