One of our most popular blog posts of all time examines the captivating story of northern British Columbia ghost town Anyox, a former company-owned mining community abandoned in 1935.
This week, we bring you Part 1 in a two-part series exploring lesser-known British Columbia ghost town stories. To kick off the series, we’re taking a look at the Corbin Miners’ Strike of 1935.
Ghost Towns in Open Collections
Fragments of Corbin’s history, as well as those of other B.C. ghost towns are present throughout UBC Open Collections, including in the Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs, and the B.C. Historical Newspapers and B.C. Sessional Papers collections. These materials help to provide a richer picture of these once-bustling communities, illuminating both their prosaic and extraordinary events.
A distant view of Premier, B.C., now a ghost town (1925)
The early years of the British Columbia labour movement
As British Columbia became increasingly industrialized through the mid-1800s, workers often faced abysmal working conditions: unbearably long work days, inadequate wages, and no health or unemployment insurance, to name a few. In 1850, miners in Fort Rupert, B.C. chose to strike against the Hudson’s Bay Company for breaching their contract of employment. This would be the first of many miners’ strikes in B.C. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with some ending peacefully and others turning violent.
The Corbin Miners’ Strike of 1935 is a uniquely compelling tale in British Columbia labour history. While many labour movement stories tell of brave workers putting their bodies on the line, the fearless front line that led the Corbin Miners’ Strike was comprised not of the town’s miners, but of their wives.
Simmering tensions in Corbin
Corbin, B.C., located near the Alberta border on Ktunaxa territory, was founded in 1905. Owned and operated by Corbin Coke and Coal, the mining town suffered harsh winters made even more arduous by its isolation.
In 1935, after years of working in poor conditions for low wages, Corbin’s unionized coal miners decided to strike. Utilizing a common tactic of the time, Corbin Coke and Coal hired scabs—employees who had agreed to work despite the strike—rather than negotiating with the union.
Black Wednesday
As Corbin Coke and Coal knew they would face resistance to bringing in scabs, they contracted both private security services and the local police force to accompany their new hires in crossing the picket line. On the morning of April 17th, 1935, the striking miners and their wives set out to block the scabs from entering the worksite. The company’s small army of hired police and security encircled the strikers, and the women of Corbin, who held the frontline of the protest, stood face-to-face with a large snow plow.
The violence that ensued was shocking. The snow plow advanced at the line of women, but they were surrounded and had nowhere to go. First-person accounts describe the snow plow crushing women’s legs and even dragging one woman hundreds of feet. Police beat the protesters, causing broken bones and severe bruising. The horrific incident would become known as Black Wednesday.
Nelson Daily News (April 19th, 1935)
The events of Black Wednesday unsurprisingly brought publicity to the strikers’ plight. Nelson, B.C.’s local newspaper reported that miners from other Canadian communities planned to travel Corbin to march for May Day, an international day for workers’ rights, in solidarity with the striking miners. The strikers had also found a strong ally in Fernie MLA Tom Uphill, who advocated for the miners both to the government and on public radio.
Nelson Daily News (April 30th, 1935)
Despite this mounting public awareness, the sacrifices paid by the strikers, and especially the women of Corbin, were unsuccessful in swaying Corbin Coke and Coal. Less than one month later, the company closed the mine for good, and the town was subsequently abandoned.
The enduring spirit of Corbin, B.C.
Today, Corbin is a fascinating ghost town made more attractive by its beautiful surroundings, making it a popular travel destination for history buffs and outdoor enthusiasts alike. But the events of Black Wednesday have also established it as an important site in Canadian labour history, where its women are remembered as “militant participants in [British Columbia] labour struggles”.
Stay tuned…
… for our next blog post, where we dive into the history of Barkerville’s Chinatown.
View of storefronts in Barkerville (date unknown)
References
Burton, M. B. & Verzuh, R. (2016, September 8). Coal Mountain: Where women paid in blood. The Tyee. https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2016/09/08/Coal-Mountain/
Durtnall, B. M. (2023, October 22). Black Wednesday: Miners’ wives & the 1935 Corbin, B.C., strike. HubPages. https://discover.hubpages.com/education/Black-Wednesday-Miners-Wives-And-the-1935-Corbin-BC-Strike
BC Labour Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Working people: A history of labour in BC. https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-Update-History-of-BC-and-Working-People-1840-1914-revised.pdf
