Stalwarts of Darkness

How many times I’ve written about coal mines and coal miners. 

Often with a passing reference to their four-legged workmates, the horses and mules—the indispensable ‘pit ponies’—who also worked deep underground, far from their natural sunlight and pasture.

Theirs, too, was a claustrophobic and dirty job. How did they fare in such an alien environment? How were they treated?  

This week, in the BC Chronicles, we’ll look at this little-known, and certainly little understood, aspect of our ‘black past.’

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PHOTO: A miner risked his life underground by choice; not so poor Dobbin. —BC Archives