Extension is an unincorporated community near the east coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The location off BC Highway 19 is about by road northwest of Victoria, and south of Nanaimo. Discovery Louis Stark, an African American, lived in today's Colvilletown neighbourhood of south Nanaimo. Many suspected foul play when his body was found at the bottom of a cliff in 1895. One theory claimed he had refused to sell his coal rich land to Dunsmuir coal, desperately seeking new sources to replace its nearly exhausted Wellington mine. Another rumour suggested he was the discoverer of the coal seam on the southern slope of Mt. Benson. However, after the death, his close neighbour Ephraim (Edward) Hodgson claimed the credit and reward for the discovery. Murder charges against Hodgson were dropped. The Mt. Benson seam proved to be an extension of the Wellington one being worked by Dunsmuir, and the location was initially called Wellington Extension. Railway Thwarted in building to Departure Bay, Nanaimo, Dunsmuir in 1897 opened a standard-gauge railway to Oyster Bay, Ladysmith, for loading coal into ships' holds, or for transferring loaded coal cars onto barges. Underground at the mine, electric locomotives hauled coal cars over the network. A narrow gauge surface line also operated between pits. 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 coal trains ran during the in-between periods. In 1931, the underground railway was gutted, and the railway tracks to Ladysmith lifted. Coalmine By 1899, the mine worked three shifts and produced annually. A steam hoist hauled the cars up the slag heap for dumping the waste. In 1901, 16 miners died in a fire beneath ground. The fire still burning over four months later, the mine was flooded to extinguish the flames. After draining, the bodies were recovered. In 1909, 32 died in an explosion of coal dust or by inhaling the resulting toxic gases. In 1910, Sir William Mackenzie purchased all the Dunsmuir mines through his Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir). Peak production was 1908–1912, but strikes plagued 1912–1913. In August 1913, strikers destroyed company property and strikebreakers' homes, especially evident in the Chinatown neighbourhood. 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