Elk Valley is a valley in southeastern British Columbia that runs via the basin of the Elk River

Elk River (British Columbia)

The Elk River is a long river, in the southeastern Kootenay district of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its drainage basin is in area. Its mean discharge is approximately 60 m³/s, with a maximum recorded discharge of 818 m³/s.-Course:...

 from the southeastern Alberta border near Kananaskis to the Rocky Mountain Trench

Rocky Mountain Trench

The Rocky Mountain Trench, or the Trench or The Valley of a Thousand Peaks, is a large valley in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains. It is both visually and cartographically a striking physiographic feature extending approximately from Flathead Lake, Montana, to the Liard River, just south...

. Communities in the valley, from uppermost to lowermost, are Elkford

Elkford, British Columbia

Elkford is a small community in southeast British Columbia. It is nestled within the majestic Rocky Mountain range. Elkford is located 32 km North of the junction at Sparwood, on provincial Highway 43....

, Sparwood

Sparwood, British Columbia

-Newspapers:* Fernie Free Press - Weekly Paper* Elk Valley Herald - Weekly Paper* Kootenay News Advertiser - Weekly Paper* The Valley - Weekly Paper* Fernie Fix - Monthly Glossy Magazine* Black Rock News - Semimonthly-Radio stations:...

, Hosmer

Hosmer, British Columbia

Hosmer is a small town near Fernie, British Columbia, and Sparwood, British Columbia.And is situated near Mount Hosmer.Hosmer was named after Charles R...

, Fernie

Fernie, British Columbia

Fernie is a city in the Elk Valley area of the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located on BC Highway 3 on the eastern approaches to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rocky Mountains...

, Morrissey, and Elko

Elko, British Columbia

Elko is located at the junction Highway 93 and Crowsnest Highway 3, to the north of the Roosville Canadian-USA border crossing. Elko is situated in a narrow valley in the rugged Canadian Rocky Mountains, in the heart of southeast British Columbia....

.

Wedged into the heart of the Canadian Rockies

Canadian Rockies

The Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains range. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, extending from the Interior Plains of Alberta to the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA...

, the Elk Valley is approximately 60 kilometres from the Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 and Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 borders.

The valley played an important part in the coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 history of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 for over 100 years, and was a hotbed of labour activism, regularly returning socialist independents to the legislature. The elk Valley is the largest producing coal field in the province, producing millions of tons of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 that is shipped to steel mills around the world

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

.

The dedication to returning the land to a state equal or better than it was before the mining began plays a vital role in protecting the Elk and Fording River Valleys for future generations of man and wildlife to use and enjoy.

Today, tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 is becoming more important in the area which sees increasing numbers of weekend snowmobilers, skiers, hikers, anglers, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

ers, and other outdoor adventurers.