Cumberland Chinatown or Coal Creek Heritage Park

Cumberland is rich with history. One of my favourite historical walks is through Cumberland's old Chinatown or Coal Creek Heritage park. The Village of Cumberland has been nice enough to memorialise the area with heritage posts about the different Chinese homes and stores. They have included photos with facts of the people that owned and lived in these buildings.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cumberlandmuseum/6960980433/in/album-72157629431696157/

Cumberland area, in name, has been around since 1891 when it was named after Cumberland in Great Britain by James Dunsmuir. The town was originally named Union when it was founded in about 1870 by Mr. Dunsmuir, after the Union Pacific Coal Company. Mr. Dunsmuir had it built to home the Chinese and Europeans he had working in the mine.

The small area of Cumberland called Chinatown was built to home the Chinese workers that immigrated here to work in the coal mines in Cumberland. The area was home to mine shafts and had a train track to transport coal from the site. The Chinese were treated very unfairly with lower wages, dangerous work environments, less rights to vote and even limited in the jobs they could hold.

They opened their own stores and lived in poorly built homes compared to the nearby Cumberland main. Not only were they treated badly but they also at times were given the most dangerous jobs in the mines and many men died during the time the mines operated. Chinese and European.

 

In 1922 an explosion happened in #4 mine. It lead to a stop of 'oriental' workers being allowed to work in the mines with The Chinese Immigration Act in 1923. This in turn basically stopped the growth of the town.

Then in 1935 Cumberland and Chinatown were victim of a serious fire that destroyed many homes and buildings. The Chinese community could no longer hold on. Instead of rebuilding many people just moved, marking the end of a era in Cumberland.

By the 1950's Chinatown was basically empty. In 1968, being considered a fire hazard the remaining buildings were destroyed. They kept one building. Jumbos cabin. They moved it onto the Comox Lake road and it is still sitting there to this day at the top of the park.

Cumberland's history is full of stories about the labor strikes and the dangers of the mines. I have done some research and found some old newspaper articles written about the area. A few stood out to me and I will share them with pictures in this post.

Slide Show

https://cumberland.ca/coal-creek-historic-park/

PDF about Chinatown