Murray Mine

Back in the day there were a lot of coal mines around East Coulee.  I'm not sure what the official count is, but around a dozen.. maybe more...?

The Atlas Coal Mine is now a national Historic Site and the large wood tipple, as well as several other buildings are now preserved.  This one is obvious and quite an extensive site that many tourists vist and know well.  But there were many other mines nearby.  One is the Murray Mine.

We met the landowner and he gave us permission to wander around the mine site and photograph.  The mine entrance is located about half way up the hill and is hidden by some clumps of small trees.  The entrance has been closed in, but there are the remains of some buildings, and a conveyor, in the trees.  Up in the hills around the site there are numerous other smaller artifacts.

On the slope nearby are the remains of three tramway towers.  These hauled waste rock away from the mine, and dumped it out of the way, over the ridge, in an adjacent coulee.  We hiked up to the towers and the view from up there is quite spectacular.  The mine must have been a busy and very noisy place when it was in full operation.  We enjoyed the couple hours that we spent here exploring and I managed a couple of setups with my big camera, in addition to these snapshots.