Old Mine Works

These are the remains of one of 139 mines that once operated in the Drumheller area.  This one closed many years ago and there is not much left.  A few timber structures and foundations are all that remain.  Still it was fun to wander around in the hills and see what we could find.  It had rained heavily on Saturday night and the hills were rather wet and muddy when we ventured out on Sunday afternoon.  The skies cleared and the temperature rose, which was great for drying up the mud.  But it made it pretty hot for dragging a big view camera up the steep hills of the Red Deer River Valley.  We had limited opportunity to explore as all of the Guild members needed to make the return drive to Edmonton later that day.  The concrete structure visible in some of these photos was the main entrance to the mine.  It has since been pushed shut and is not accessible.  The remants of an old conveyor system are jumbled inside the remains of the entrance buildng.  There were also the timber framed towers of a tramway that I understand once hauled away waste material and dumped it over the edge into an adjacent coulee.  This was the Murray Mine, located across the river from the town of East Coulee.  Quite a scenic spot and a place worth coming back to for further exploration.  It is so close to my shop in East Coulee that we should have ample opportunity to get back here again soon.

I wasn't able to carry my heavy camera pack, my tripod, and my digital camera up the steep slopes at this location.  So the digital camera stayed behind and I just took these snapshots with my phone.  I did manage to set up the big view camera for a couple of shots though.