After a year-long celebration of the centennial of coal mining in the valley, the committee is holding its final event to honour the miners and the volunteers who made the celebration a success.
2011 marked 100 years since the first commercial coal mine in the valley was established, and the community celebrated the milestone. This Friday they are honouring the volunteers who helped make the celebration a success at a private function. At the same time, the new gallery at the Badlands Community Facility is opening and its first exhibit will be part of the celebration.
“It is exciting because Town Council felt it was really appropriate to open the new gallery in the new facility with the story of Drumheller and this is what this is,” said Linda Digby, executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine.
The exhibit is called Through the Lens: Coal Town Years and it is a collection of images of the valley. These come from the Atlas Coal Mine’s extensive collections, as well as many of the images collected from residents to help celebrate the mining centennial.
“Collecting images that depict life in Drumheller during the coal mining years is an ongoing process at the Atlas Coal Mine, which is an Affirmed Museum with the Alberta Museums Association. These images are priceless for research and interpretation of local history. It is impossible to show them all in one exhibit. Selecting images from our archives to show in this exhibit was fun, and involved some tough decisions,” said Digby.
Some of the images also come from the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s archives depicting the early years of dinosaur hunting in the valley, continuing the narrative of Drumheller, as the coal industry collapsed and tourism became a major industry.
Digby credits the Royal Tyrrell and its staff for helping display the collection. The photos will be displayed in groupings with like-themed images and displayed on canvas. The Communities Anniversary Grant the committee received from Heritage Canada helped to pay for the materials to complete the exhibit.
“It is gorgeous, I think people will be delighted with how their history looks,” said Digby.
The images will tell the complete story of life in the mining years; from the miners working to the social life, the homes and the commercial sector.
“I think people will love to see the town from the view of an earlier era,” said Digby.
The gallery will make its premier at a volunteer appreciation night on Friday, March 23, and will open to the public on March 24. Digby encourages the community to come see the works. The exhibit will only be installed until March 31, as there are more bookings for the space. Digby said there may be a chance the images will be displayed later in the year.