POCAHONTAS

NAME: Pocahontas COUNTY: N/A ROADS: 4WD GRID: 2 CLIMATE: Mild summer,cold winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer

COMMENTS: Central Alberta REMAINS: Just a Site.

Pocahontas began life in 1909 as a construction camp set up along the 184-mile tote road in order to build the grade for the advancing Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad. Pacahontas likely would have had the fleeting life of other construction camps had it not been sitting atop a fine seam of steam coal that had been discovered a couple of years earlier. In 1910 the mine was opened and began stockpiling coal for the arrival of the Grand Trunk locomotives. While they were constructing a huge tipple, there were 250 miners and construction workers stationed at Pocahontas. Because of similarities in the coal with that of Pocahontas, Pennsylvania, it was given that name for the town. For the next ten years, the little town prospered. Though the original town as long since vanished, the site is well marked by the Pocahontas Bungalows that were built after the Second World War. There, too, starts the road that leads southeast from its junction with Highway 16 to the now famous Miette Hot Springs. The drive over the winding 10-mile road is about as picturesque as one will find anywhere. H.B. Chenoweth

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