The bridges were finished in March 1889, and the shipping and freight wharves at Union Bay were operational that summer. The first 21 tons of coal were taken from No.1 and No. 2 shafts on 25 may, and in early July the San Mateo steamed out of the harbour with the first 4500 ton shipment of Comox coal.

Safety in the workplace was not emphasized as it is today. The pace of everyday living was slower. People, not machines, were in control of their lives. Accidents often arose from circumstances foreign to people today.

July 1910 - M.W. Reesman, sub-foreman and employee of Fraser River Co. at Union Bay met a horrible death. A very steady young man, dressed in his night clothes, bid his companions good-night and was never seen alive again. They searched the woods, but found him in the outhouse, dead. The verdict of the inquest was “death by smothering”.

March 1927 - Nine year old Griffin McColgan and two playmates, Gordon Horne and Ben Abrams, went down to the bunkers on Tuesday and were playing on the turntable. Griffin pushed the mechanism which swings the turntable and it moved with him on it. The boy slipped and fell. Then, when the turntable swung back, he was caught between it and the main line, suffering such severe internal injuries that there was never any chance of saying his life. His two little playmates, seeing what had happened, rushed down and succeeded in extracting the boy. One of them carried him a quarter of a mile to some water, and the other proceeded to get help. The boy was taken to Cumberland Hospital where he died.