
Miners Memorial
Standing In Solidarity
"The church and school bells would toll their sad refrain.
Death at the mine. Again." - Poem by Dawn Copeman
On June 20, 1984, a 3.5-magnitude earthquake struck Sudbury, Ontario’s Falconbridge nickel mine, causing a cave-in that killed four miners. This tragedy led to Sudbury's first miners' memorial event the following year.
In 1986, Cumberland became the first community in British Columbia to host a similar event. Between 1874 and 1966, over three-hundred men lost their lives in the Cumberland coal mines. Though decades had passed since Cumberland's mines closed, the memories of mining, the grief over lost lives, and the recognition of labor activists like Albert Goodwin and Joe Naylor, who championed workers' rights and the pro-union movement, remained strong.

The annual event commemorates and celebrates the lives of those who carved out the very foundations of our village; featuring workshops, walking tours, musical performances and graveside vigils including at the Chinese and Japanese cemeteries.

In 2018, the 33rd Miners' Memorial attracted hundreds to mark the 100th anniversary of union organizer Albert Goodwin's death. The event featured music, workshops, and a re-creation of Goodwin's 1918 funeral procession.

The Miners’ Memorial remains an important fixture in the community's calendar. The hard work, resistance and strength of character the mining men and their families showed embodies the Cumberland character and remains something the community take pride in today.
