The Coalmont Hotel in Coalmont, B.C. celebrated its grand opening in April 1912. Two hundred people attended. The hotel had 35 rooms, a cafe and pub, and an ice house that stored 150 tons of ice.

In the 1930s rooms rented for $2 a night, meals were 50 cents, and locals could pay 50 cents to use the hotel’s bathtub, since most homes didn’t have one. The hotel charged 2 cents to take a message for people who didn’t have their own telephone.

The mine closed in 1939, and in 1940 most people moved away, leaving Coalmont almost a ghost town. But the hotel remained in business, along with one store that sold gas and supplies to the remaining locals and motorists.

Photo taken in 2006 with a disposable film camera and issued as a low res digital file because my digital camera died on the first day of my 5 day trip. Argh!    (CB&W)