Lower Bankhead

Lower Bankhead is identified by the scattered concrete foundations and industrial remnants hidden along the forested slopes of Cascade Mountain. Established in nineteen oh three by the Canadian Pacific Railway, this site was the engine of a modern coal-mining town that briefly held nearly one thousand residents. The operation relied on anthracite coal, which was so brittle it often crumbled into dust, forcing the company to build a specialized briquette plant to compress the fuel for steam locomotives and hotel boilers.