Description of Historic Place

The Cumberland 00 Survey Benchmark is a historic geodetic survey - a small iron puck, embedded in a sunken concrete pillar. This benchmark permanently marks the starting point on the ground, for the original mapping system of approximately 130 mining boreholes (test pits). The marker is located in the southeast edge of Village Park in Cumberland, BC.

Heritage Value

The Cumberland 00 Survey Benchmark has historical value as the starting point of mining mapping surveys that were performed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Cumberland coal fields, including the digging of approximately 130 boreholes (test pits) over a period of 60 years.

It is also important for its association with George Fawcett Drabble (1833-1901), one of the leading figures of the agricultural settlement founded at Comox in the 1860s who, as an England-trained land surveyor, was instructed in 1873 to lay out the coal company's claims in what would become the Cumberland area.

The Cumberland 00 Survey Benchmark has historical value as the only intact, endured remnant of coal mining history in Cumberland, and as a touchstone in the community. Other physical remnants of Cumberland's coal mining history survive at No. 3 Mine (access point), No. 4 Mine, Scott's Slope and No. 1 Japan Town.

This historic place has historical and social value for its association with two local story holders: Robert (Rocky) Williams (1927-2021) and Gwyn Sproule. Williams, after a career of 13 years as a surveyor at Canadian Collieries (D) Ltd. and 35 years as a B.C. Land Surveyor, took on the search for the boreholes between Cumberland and Bevan as a retirement project. He rediscovered the Benchmark and passed on its location and significance to others in Cumberland, including community historian Gwyn Sproule.

The Benchmark has scientific heritage value as a technique of the complex British Colonial land surveying methods used worldwide in the 19th century. The Benchmark has further scientific value as a bridge between the old and new mapping systems, created by Robert Williams, who converted the Canadian Collieries (D) Ltd. coordinates into UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) coordinates.

The Cumberland 00 Survey Benchmark has environmental and cultural value as the point of origin for stratigraphic research performed by mining companies in the 19th and 20th centuries that resulted in extensive knowledge of the region's natural environment.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the heritage character of the 00 Survey Benchmark are its:

- Original location on the southeast edge of Village Park (coordinates: N 49"37.048' W 125"01.199')
- Associated network of boreholes throughout the Cumberland and Bevan area
- Its small, typical survey benchmark size, and concrete and iron material
- Accessibility from Village Park and the Wellington Colliery Railway trail