Extension is an unincorporated community near the east coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
[5] Travel was free for both workers and others on the three-car passenger trains meeting each shift, which provided an opportunity for family members to spend a day in Ladysmith.
The BC government declared martial law, sending in troops to restore order and escort strikebreakers to work.
Having yielded eight million tons of coal, final closure came in 1931,[5] but unionization in Vancouver Island mines was not restored until 1938.
[14] Throughout the 1930s, while surviving the Great Depression, some residents entered up to 91 metres (300 ft) into the Extension workings to extract coal by hand.
[18] Special trains carried passengers to Saturday night dances held at either Extension or Ladysmith.
[20][21] In 1948, the place was described as "warped, unpainted shanties, many of them with their walls angling crazily and their windows cracked, make Extension…a ghost town – except that people live in the tumbling huts….
[4] Real estate developers soon promoted such locations, which were outside the Nanaimo city boundaries, and taxed at much lower rates.
[22] Today, this bedroom community for Nanaimo comprises a residential area of steadily diminishing vacant lots and modern houses, surrounded by small farms.