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When the Coal Mining Era of the Drumheller Valley in eastern Alberta dawned with the discovery of coal in the area, many towns sprang up, some virtually overnight. Most of these towns were built and owned by the mining companies to accommodate the miners working the coal seams, but a few independent communities developed as well. East Coulee, for instance, burst into being after the railroad companies built a spur line into the area east of Drumheller. The town grew at an incredible rate reaching almost 3000 people after only two years!
For 25 years East Coulee prospered, home to thousands of people with most of the men spending at least some time working for the mining companies. These miners and their families endured the hot, arid climate of the valley bottom, a difficult place to grow food, to find shade in the summer and to get around during the long winters. This Community Memories exhibit recounts how these courageous and determined settlers built a good life in the Badlands despite the hardships.
East Coulee is now officially a ghost town, even though there are about 160 “active ghosts” still living there. With the discovery of oil in the Leduc area of central Alberta in the early 1940s the demand for coal to heat homes diminished and by the middle 1950s almost all the coal mines had closed.
