Around 149, probably more, miners lost their lives carving out the town 8,000 now call home.
Those men do not have a memorial and are not publicly remembered for laying the foundation we now call home.
And now the people behind the upcoming Drumheller mining centennial celebrations are looking to area residents to think up a name for their memory.
The year 2011 will mark a century after the first mine was established in the valley.
Olga Skrlik of Edmonton asked the Atlas Coal Mine’s executive director Linda Digby why there was no memorial for the 149 miners lost.
Her husband John Myers died in one of the last fatal accidents in 1962.
Digby thought that if there was ever going to be a memorial, there would be no better occasion than Drumheller’s mining centennial next year.
With this idea in her heart, Digby called the first public forum to find individuals to make a centennial happen.
The Centennial Committee is planning many events for 2011 from a May Day celebration to a Miner’s Memorial and many more.
They are asking our community for their help in naming this all important event.
The winner will be given a family tour at the Atlas Coal Mine and World Famous Rhubarb Pie at the Old School Café in the East Coulee School Museum.
Entries can be e-mailed to drumheller.miner100@gmail.com or dropped off with your name and phone number with Connie Tremblay at RE/MAX 320 Centre Street, Drumheller 403-321-7653.
