Bill Miner and B.C. Tourism
In 1906 Bill Miner and his two accomplices robbed a Canadian Pacific Railroad train near Kamloops, B.C. Miner was eventually captured, put on trial in Kamloops (which caused a media frenzy), and sent to the B.C. Penitentiary in New Westminster for imprisonment. In 1907 Miner escaped from the B.C. Pen and was not recaptured in Canada.
Bill Miner left a lasting legacy and has become a tourist “attraction” for Kamloops, B.C.:
- Kamloops Heritage Railroad reenacts the robbery
- Miner’s train robbery is depicted in a mural on the wall of Cactus Jack’s Saloon in downtown Kamloops
Miner’s legacy extends far beyond Kamloops, B.C.:
- The keg restaurants have Billy Miner pie (Mocha ice cream on a chocolate crust with hot fudge, caramel, and almonds)
- Maple Ridge, B.C. has a Billy Miner Pub.
- Mount Miner (near Princeton, B.C.) was renamed in 1952 in honor of Bill Minor, who had lived near Princeton while (allegedly) planning the robbery near Kamloops
- Ashcroft, B.C.’s website once claimed, “While a Ashcroft, B.C.’s website states “While a peaceful and friendly community today, Aldergrove was once home to Canada’s first and most famous train robber, Bill Miner (known by the Mounties, and much later, Hollywood as the Grey Fox). Though a masterful and elusive ne’er-do-well, the Grey Fox was eventually brought to justice in 1906 by local resident brothers, Duncan and Robert Shortread.”
Of course, Miner made his debut on the big screen in the 1982 film The Grey Fox, directed by Phillip Borsos and written by John Hunter. Below you can watch the trailer:
Bill Miner at the B.C. Penitentiary
The Infamous Bill Miner…Jailed At BC Penitentiary
The infamous train robber by the name of Billy Miner spent a short amount of time in the B.C. Pen before escaping.
The following excerpts are from the Anthony Martin B.C. Penitentiary Collection exhibit at the Old Courthouse in Kamloops, B.C.
The Infamous Bill Miner
“Ezra Allen (Bill) Miner was one of the last American desperadoes who made their way across the Canadian border. On the run from a botched train robbery in Washington State in 1903, Miner found himself living in shacks and cabins in the lower Fraser Valley. Eventually, he assembled a stake and a gang of like-minded fellow Americans. They spent considerable time and effort planning to rob the CPR near Mission Junction. On the night of September 8, 1904, the CPR express was held up and the robbers escaped into darkness. After spending a day or so in Chilliwack, shooting pool and playing poker with CPR detectives, Miner decided to head to the Similkameen via the Dewdney Trail. We next hear from Miner from his new home base at Princeton, where he had met up with an American by the name of Jack Budd. Miner made many friends in the Princeton country and they would support him in his future trials. It was during this time that miner decided to top up his friends. The Great Northern Railway was robbed of $30,000.00 in 1905 and Miner came back to Princeton, organized dances, festivities and imported girls. By the spring of 1906, however, funds were again running low. Miner had cultivated friendships in the Kamloops country and he would move back and forth always keeping his eyes open for potential opportunities. Miner finally decided to rob the CPR on the 8th of May 1906 at Ducks, just east of Kamloops. Unfortunately, Miner’s planning had been less than meticulous and he and his partners realized only $14.00. They were later captured, tried and convicted. By the first of June they passed through the gates of the BC Penitentiary. A little over a year later, Miner had escaped and left Canada forever.
‘By the light of the oil lamp, William McLeod and George Edwards (Bill Miner’s Pseudonym) talked far into the night. The paper declared that the notorious Gates Brothers, who had just been killed in a shootout in California, were Bill Miner’s partners the night they knocked over the train at Mission. Photos of the dead bandits were in the paper. Mr. Edwards went on to confidently assure young William that despite the best efforts of posses and police in British Columbia and Canada, Bill Miner was too clever a bandit to be caught by ordinary Canadians.’”
~Information by Peter Grauer – Kamloops Historian, quotation from his book, “Interred With Their Bones, Bill Miner in Canada, 1903 to 1907”
Where did Bill Miner Go?
There was little real evidence of where Bill Miner went after his escape. A farmer near Mission BC reported having given a meal to an old man on August 12th 1907. The farmer had taken him as a vagrant because of his old clothes and closely cropped hair, but after seeing the photo in the newspaper immediately recognized his visitor as the escaped convict. (However whether it really was Bill Miner that visited the farmer was never proven.) It was also said the Miner had many friends in the Chilliwack and Similkameen area and over the coastal mountains and could have been hiding out in any of these places for a time. Eventually Bill Miner returns to America and continues his train robbing where he is again arrested and serves time in Milledgeville State Prison in Georgia. He escapes from this prison in 1911 by overpowering a guard but is recaptured and put in irons. On June 29th 1912 Miner cut off his shackles and cut through the bars of his cell escaping again, during a thunderstorm, with two other inmates. They managed to steal a boat but it capsized and one man drowned. Two days later Miner gave himself up and fourteen months after that, on September 2nd 1913, he passed away.
The Infamous Bill Miner
Bill Miner was admitted to the BC Penitentiary on June 2nd 1906 after his trial in Kamloops (At the age of 64/65 years old). He spent little over a year in the penitentiary and on August 8th 1907 while part of a work gang Bill Miner as well as three other prisoners by the names of Walter Woods, John Clark and Albert McClusky snuck through a hole under the fence near where they were working. The officers on duty noticed the missing prisoners and found the hole under the fence then promptly took off after the fugitives. All work teams were brought in and locked up and officers searched for Miner and his fellow escapees for 11 days before calling off the search.
Strange Circumstances of the Miner Escape:
The hole Miner and his associates escaped through appeared to be partly or wholly dug ahead of time and it was also thought that the convicts must have had some help
B.C. Penitentiary Collection 