The Train Robbery At Mission City
Featuring the bandit Bill Miner
If you play Red Dead Redemption 2 like I have, on many occasions, then you are no stranger to the train robbery. In fact, the train robbery seems to be part of the lore of the Wild West.
As for Canada, there was no real era of the train robbery. You can probably count the number of train robberies on one hand in fact.
The most famous train robbery, by far, was conducted by Bill Miner.
Bill Miner was a man who was always on the wrong side of the law. He was first arrested in 1866 when he was only 19. For the next 14 years, he was in and out of jail before he robbed his first stagecoach in 1880.
Credited with creating the phrase “hands up!”, he also told those he was with that they can fire their guns if in danger, but were told to never kill a man.
Eventually, after serving another prison term, Miner moved to British Columbia and took on the name of George Edwards.
It was there, on Sept. 10, 1904, that he robbed a train 35 kilometres east of Vancouver near Mission City. This has been erroneously named as the first train robbery in Canadian history but 30 years previous, a train was robbed in Port Credit, Ontario. In that robbery on Nov. 14, 1874, $12,000 was stolen.
While Miner got away after the Mission City robbery, he attempted to rob another train near Monte Creek outside Kamloops. He chose the wrong car, and only stole $15 plus some kidney pills off a shelf.
Miner and his accomplices were located near Douglas Lake, British Columbia after a manhunt. They were caught while lunching in the woods. Miner tried to state he was a prospector but no one was buying it.
Miner’s trial was a major media event and he became a bit of a celebrity with many supporters. At the time, the Canadian Pacific Railway was not popular with Canadian residents, and they were happy to see it robbed.
Sentenced to serve time at the British Columbia Penitentiary, Miner escaped in 1907 and left Canada for good.
He didn’t give up his robbing ways though. He served more prison time, and escaped twice in the process. Then, during another escape attempt, he drank brackish water in Georgia and died of gastritis on Sept. 2, 1913.