Anthracite, Alberta It was reopened the next year when W. H. McNeill agreed to finance the coal company, but after a series of floods and more bad luck, McNeill moved his operations to nearby Canmore. It was deserted in 1904 and in the 1930s mining in the surrounding region was banned by the government. Anthracite is located at approximately . In 1997, John Pearson, a former Parks Canada employee and last living resident of Anthracite revealed to a Banff newspaper that he had heard a rumour in the 1960s that a child had drowned in the nearby Cascade River in 1883 and
Anthracite iron not keep the furnace in operation for more than two months. While distinguished visitors, including Governor Joseph Ritner, acknowledged his success, he sold out his share in Valley Furnace and went to New York City. The research was proceeding along parallel lines across the Atlantic. George Crane, owner, and David Thomas, superintendent of the Yniscedwyn Iron Works, had themselves conceived of the idea of using hot blast to smelt anthracite. Thomas was sent to Scotland to examine Neilson's installation and reproduced it at Yniscedwyn. Crane filed for a British patent on smelting iron with anthracite and hot blast in 1836