Coalmining operations are vast in nature, from the actual mine entrance to the labyrinthine underground workings, tramways, loadouts, a host of differently purposed buildings, tailings and slack coal piles – a mine is landscape-altering. And because of that and modern demands for alternate use of land once a mine has closed, very little remains today of the former large mine complexes. Industrial and historical archaeologists have their own insights into how to reconstruct the nature of earlier technologies and life in coalmining communities. Margaret will talk about the quite varied and sometimes colourful archaeological sites that were associated with the 20 th century coal industry in the Crowsnest Pass, such as abandoned townsites (particularly as viewed through their outhouses), a zinc smelter, coke ovens, a red light area and the limited remains of the coal mine surface plants themselves. These were not entirely unique to the Crowsnest Pass but representative of life in similar boom and bust coalmining frontiers.