May 3, 1887: #1 Esplanade Mine disaster

[GR74]

So here we are again, May 3rd, the anniversary of the famous No.1 Coal Mine explosion that killed 150 miners. This year marks the 123rd anniversary of that explosion and although there is not much to see around the site anymore, I will pay my respects and visit the site sometime this evening when I finish work.

The explosion took place around 5:55pm on this day in 1887.

[Flugel Horn]

I will visit the site too, also after-work today.

Last week, I wrote a letter-to-the-editor for the Daily News, explaining the significance of today's anniversary. It hasn't been published.

[Bathtub in Bohemia]

I managed to spot at least three known relatives on that memorial...

[Harewoodian]

So are you folks planning on being at the memorial at 5:55pm today?

I'll try to make it down there at that time.

[Nostradama]

Could someone going there sort of "leave a thought there" for me, too? Especially for the Chinese miners, who are only remembered by numbers? I know that Dick Mah, now gone himself but who provided some information about them, would have appreciated that. And me, too.

[Flugel Horn]

I will likely be there just after 5:30, and will try to stay until just after 5:55.......and then have to rush home. I think that any of us there today will be obvious to each other if we see each other. Who else would be there on May 3rd at 5:55pm?

[Flugel Horn]

Here is the letter that I sent to the Nanaimo Daily News, on 4/27/2010:

May 3rd is an important and solemn date in Nanaimo’s history. On May 3, 1887 at 5:55pm, 147 coal miners and later 1 rescuer were killed in explosions at Nanaimo’s No.1 Esplanade mine. It remains the worst mining accident in BC history.

A roadside information kiosk is situated near the mine site, at the intersection of Milton and Esplanade streets, and it lists the names of the non-Chinese miners killed and the employee-numbers of the Chinese miners killed. The information kiosk does a good job of mentioning the main clan and village origins of the Chinese miners who's names weren't recorded by the mining company. I'm assuming that many of the Chinese miners' remains were returned to China, as was the custom. Many of the grave markers for the non-Chinese miners killed can be found in the Nanaimo public cemetery.

Looking ahead, May 3, 2012 will be the 125th anniversary of this event, and I hope that in 2 year’s time this sad moment in our city's history will be commemorated in a meaningful and public way.

[Foxglove]

Does the paper never mention this tragedy? It seems odd that something so tragic wouldn't be remembered in the public like that. Strange.

[poni]

I missed it, I'm going down there to have a look sometime this week.

I will likely be there just after 5:30, and will try to stay until just after 5:55.......and then have to rush home. I think that any of us there today will be obvious to each other if we see each other. Who else would be there on May 3rd at 5:55pm?

[GR74]

I went down to the site of the No.1 Coal Mine on Esplanade and met up with Flugel Horn, nice to finally meet him. It was only the 2 of us and we spent a half hour from 5:30pm to 6:00pm at the site to pay our respects to the fallen miners, having our moment of silence at 5:55pm.

I thought about the explosion(s) and tried to imagine what it was like back then when the disaster took place, the sound of the explosion and the constant sounding of the old steam whistle that is now on display at City Hall. We walked the train tracks, looked around for signs of the mine and spoke briefly about the accident before leaving the site.

Flugel Horn mentioned that the fallen miners were burried in the cemetary just off of Bowen Road. I will have to take a walk through there some day and read the headstones.