Mercoal, Alberta

Mercoal Mine 1957

Mercoal, a former coal mining town, is located in the Yellowhead County of western Alberta, Canada. It was one of several communities along the historic 'Coal Branch' segment of the Canadian National Railway (formerly known as the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway), which included Embarras, Robb, Coalspur, Coal Valley, Cadomin, Luscar, and Mountain Park. At its peak in the late 1940s and early 1950s the town had over 800 residents. Mercoal, which shut down its coal mining operations in 1959, is now essentially a ghost town, with only a small number of summer residences remaining. It is situated on Highway 40, 70 km southwest of Edson, 8 km (5 mi) west of Coalspur.

History

Mercoal - circa 1956

Mercoal's name was an acronym for the McLeod River Hard Coal Company, co-owned by Nick Gurvich, who opened the mine in 1920. In 1924 the mine was sold to Saunders Ridge Coal Company, Ltd.^[1] During the 1950s, Mercoal attracted an influx of workers from other Coal Branch towns, after the closure of Mountain Park in 1950, and Cadomin in 1952. The Mercoal mine finally closed on July 17, 1959.

References

1. ^ Toni Ross, Oh! The Coal Branch (Edmonton: Friesen, 1974), p. 59

External links

• Mercoal (ghosttownpix.com)
• Ghost Towns - Mercoal
• Atlas of Alberta Railways - The Coal Branch
• Rockies, Coal Branch and Nordegg: Overview
• When Coal Was King: Coal Mining in Western Canada

Coordinates: 53°09′37″N 117°05′43″W / 53.16028°N 117.09528°W / 53.16028; -117.09528 (Mercoal, Alberta)