Morden Colliery Park and Trail Timeline
January 1972
Morden Colliery designated as provincial historic park for its unique status as the only above-ground reinforced concrete coal tipple on Vancouver Island.
1976
Chain link fence erected around tipple for safety reasons.
Park up-graded to Class "A" status, enabling it to have priority, when funding available, for up-grading.
1976 to 1995
Plans for the park and restoration of historic coal tipple non-existent or dormant.
1995
Regional District of Nanaimo receives 20-year licence over old Pacific Coast Coal Mining railway right-of-way. Work begins on trail plans leading to Morden Colliery Park.
1995 to 1998
Completion of 2.4 km trail leading from Cedar Road (Wheatsheaf Inn) to Hemer Provincial Park and Holden Lake by RDN and Area "A" Parks, Recreation and Green Spaces Committee.
Completion of second trail following branch of the PCCM Railway from Morden to "a long-vanished trestle" over the Nanaimo River.*
June 2001
Creation of Morden Colliery Trail Committee as Sub-committee of Parks and Recreation Greenspace Committee.
October 2001
First Morden Colliery Trail community work party organised to pull/cut back vegetation from trail and repair flood damage. Very well supported.
August 2002
Interpretative signboard to commemorate historical significance of Morden coal tipple researched and erected by Morden Colliery Trail Committee/RDN. However, RDN is not interested in taking responsibilty for the Morden Mine structures.
June 2003
Formation of the Friends of the Morden Mine Society.
2003 to 2005
Friends of Morden Mine schedule clean-up days, tours, annual picnics, talks to schools and other groups at mine site. Creation of slide show of Morden's history to take out to other groups. Building up funds.
March 2004
Henrik Kreiberg, Area "A" Regional Director, negotiates with Ministry of Transportation and Highways for a "land for zoning change" swap. The RDN receives several acres of land for future park development, including part of the site of the PCCM's first mine in the South Wellington area.
October 2004
Parks Stewardship Agreement between B.C. Parks and Friends of the Morden Mine signed for the purpose of assisting the Ministry “to protect and enhance the historical and recreational values within Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park.”
January 2005
B.C. Heritage Branch approves Friends of Morden Mine's request for matching funding to "assess the feasibility of conservation, restoration or rehabilitation" of the Morden Mine head-frame and tipple.
March 2005
Report on viability of concrete in Morden coal tipple and preliminary report on its stabilization received from Metro Testing Laboratories, Vancouver, and Reid, Jones Christofferson, Nanaimo.
September 2005
Thieves steal 90-year old chimney firebricks from Morden site.
December 2005 - March 2006
George Stevens offers FOMM brick originally taken from PCCM's Boat Harbour in the 1940's. His father and he used them to build a fireplace in a no-longer needed cabin beside Holden Lake. Sadly George Stevens dies before Spring, but TomTeer offers to rescue the bricks from the cabin site and stores them for FOMM's future use.
2006
Beer & Burger night, February 11, and David Gogo Benefit Concert, March 25,raise over $5,000 for Morden stabilization study.
Herold Engineering report commissioned for comprehensive stabilization costs for Morden structure (June 2006). B.C. Parks contributes half of the cost of the study. Many thanks to Drew Chapman of B.C. Parks for negotiating this.
February 2007
Canada Revenue agency grants FOMM charitable status as a society, allowing it to issue tax receipts for all donations.
April 2007
RLC Enterprize Ltd., B.C. Parks facility operator for many provincial parks on Vancouver Island, offer interpretative programming at Morden Colliery Provincial Park for schools, seniors, tour and other interested groups.
June 2007
Friends of Morden Mine new website for Morden is up and running: www.mordenmine.com
Morden Colliery Trail (MCT) is designated as a Regional Trail (MCRT) by the Regional District of Nanaimo.
December 2007
Flooding of Thatcher Creek causes damage to a 12 metre long footbridge in the western section of Morden Colliery Trail. Hikers may still complete the trail down to the Nanaimo River by a nearby ground route unless heavy rains or more flooding make it inaccessible.
May 2008
RDN in consultation with BC Ministry of Environment and Canada Dept. of Fisheries consider replacing destroyed footbridge, two smaller structures, with culverts and raised, or "turnpiked" trail sections. Possible completion of new installations by late summer.
October 6, 2008
Removal of flood damaged Thatcher Creek footbridge no. 3 and replacement culvert work was completed. All crossing locations will now be impervious to flood damage, although very high water events will still prevent use of the trail until flood waters recede.
October 7, 2008
Presentation to RDN Regional Parks and Trails Advisory Committee (RPTAC) requesting joint funding for a site study of Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park. Funds from BC Parks and Friends of Morden Mine are already in place. RDN staff will prepare a report for RPTAC on this request for consideration in 2009 Regional Parks budget preparation.
March 2009
Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park named an "Historic Place," to be listed in Parks Canada's Canadian Register of Historic Places.
March 2009
Addition to present sentence. Historic Place is defined by Parks Canada as "A structure, building, group of buildings, district, landscape, archaeological site or other place in Canada that has been formally recognized for its heritage value within a provincial/territorial/federal jurisdiction."
March 2009
Regional District of Nanaimo approves a grant of $4,000 for a site development
study of Morden Colliery History Provincial Park and Morden Colliery Regional Trail.
May 2009
City of Nanaimo approves a grant of $4,000 for site development study.
November 4, 2009
Consultant approved to undertake site plan of Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park and the western portion of Morden Colliery Regional Trail.
Some timeline data taken from "Working in the Coal Mines...." Times-Colonist, Mar 21/99.