Black Rock - Part 4

 Hello... Sandy Bear here on my Black Rock tour of coal mining sites in the area. In case you were wondering... there were a LOT of coal mines on Vancouver Island back in the day.

This is a map of just the mines in the Nanaimo/Ladysmith area... see... lots!

But... coal mining, back in the day (and even today), is beary dangerous. Today we are at the cemetery...

If you look around the cemetery, you will find a lot of graves for some of the 150 men who were killed on May 3, 1887 in the #1 Esplanade Mine explosion. It was the worst mining disaster in BC and it would have been th worst in Canada except for the 1914 mine explosion in Hillcrest, Alberta which killed 189 miners . 

These side by side graves are for father and son, John and Reuben Meakin. John was 57 years old (born in London) and Reuben was only 18 years old (born in Nanaimo).

So sad... but at least they still have gravestones. So many of the miner graves have deteriorated to the point where you can't read them anymore.

Because that was only one mine disaster... there were many more... but not as bad as the 1887 one.

Some stones are quite nice - this one is for George Biggs, who also died on May 3, 1887 in the explosion. He was 27 years old. And so concludes our tour of the coal mining history of the area. Hope you enjoyed it!