Tumbler Ridge — a town that once almost disappeared

In light of the tragedy that occurred in Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday, the Western Standard has decided to delve into its past and highlight the historical resilience of its community.Tumbler Ridge was founded in 1981 in northeast BC.The BC government developed it as a resource town since in the 1970s — it was discovered to have large reserves of coal in the area.Alongside, Denison Mines, Teach Corporation, and the Japanese Steel Industry signed an agreement allowing the Northeast Coal Developments to be created — in three years alone, the town, the infrastructure, and two mines were built from scratch.A paved road was built into the town, with a transmission and rail line, that had to plow through not one but two mountain ranges.The tunnels that were made from this — are among the largest in the whole continent of North America. .Ports Canada then build a coal terminal which could transport 12 million tonnes of coal annually.And with that, Tumbler Ridge became a coal town.Two major coal mining companies also made Tumbler ridge their home during this time, Quintette Coal Ltd and Bullmoose Operating Corporation. However, the mines herday would soon run try in the early 2000s, Quintette Coal Mine shutting down in 2000 and Bullmoose Mine shutting down in 2003..With this came a crisis — the coal industry in the town had completlely disappeared.But this only proved to reveal Tumbler Ridge's resiliency.In March 2000, Tumbler Ridge's Town Council formed the Tumbler Ridge Revitalization Task Force.The task force included local and regional politicians, community and business leaders..The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation eventually acquired the houses in Tumbler Ridge.The Tumbler Ridge municipality then bought the houses and then returned them to the market at a greatly reduced price.According to a CBC News report from August 2000, real estate agents selling the houses in the town were calling the effort of mass sell-off effort a major success.Prices for houses at the time were selling as low as $20,000..The sales manager at the time, Gary Van Norman, stated he was surprised to find most of the the buyers were mostly not retirees, but young people."The rest are younger people, " he said."People who are employed in construction industries that can live here, but can work out of the area two or three weeks a month.""They'd like to have their wife and children living in a nice environment, and they've chosen this," Van Norman stated about the community's growth..Van Norman also pointed out, at the time, condominiums were going on sale for $10,000 each.They then saw the opening of another coal mine in 2005, Western Coal's Wolverine Mine, followed by another, Peace River Coal's Trend Mine.These projects and the new population resulted in Tumbler Ridge's greatest amount of private investment in the community since its construction.In 2021, Tumbler Ridge celebrated 40 years as a community.The population of Tumbler Ridge, as of 2021 (most recent), was 2,399.

Tumbler Ridge — a town that once almost disappeared

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