As Mountain Mill was being abandoned, the town of Beaver Mines was coming into existence. It is said the original manager of the lumber camp at Mountain Mill discovered a deposit of coal on Beaver Creek, 15 miles west of the town of Pincher Creek. The Western Coal and Coke Company began developing the site and by 1911 it began to take on the appearance of a busy town. By 1912 Beaver Mines had become a full-fledged mining community employing 450 miners. It soon would have a population exceeding 1,000 with stores, hotels, and homes of excellent quality. Beaver Mines met the same fate of dozens of coal-mining towns. First, a series of strikes during the First World War crippled production. Then the conversion to diesel locomotives by most railroads put a good 75 percent of Alberta’s coal mines out of business. But Beaver Mines did not die officially until the last mine closed in 1971. Even so, a few have refused to leave and still call Beaver Mines home. .H.B. Chenoweth