Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia (08-16-13)

Sydney is one of the larger towns on Cape Breton, so we started our stay there by restocking the refrigerator with some produce.  We have to be a little careful  what we buy now because in two weeks we’ll be crossing the border back into the states, and won’t be able to bring any meat or produce with us. The U.S. is even more strict than Canada about what you can bring, so I’d just rather have NO produce than have to guess what I can bring and what I can’t (apparently it changes regularly).
Once we were stocked up again, it was off to the Sydney Mines. Coal mining was one of the two major industries on Cape Breton- the other one being fishing.  With the fish population decimated and all of the mines closed, Cape Breton has  had to re-invent itself in order to survive.

Back in the 1960s, the Sydney Mine Museum was created, before all the mines were closed, and while the local knowledge of the history was still extensive.  Our visit was two pronged- the museum above ground, and the tour of the mine below ground.

   We’ve been to a coal mine before, and that first visit had a real impact on both Paul and I. We quickly came to understand just how difficult and dangerous a life of coal mining is. This tour added even more to our knowledge and understanding.
I have very few pictures of our day because I made a rookie mistake and forgot to put the memory card in my camera!




The tour below was conducted by Wish, an older man who actually worked in the mines before they closed.  The mine we were touring was never actually “mined”.  It was dug solely to be part of the museum. We still had to crouch down for most of the tour though!






He described a typical day in the life of a miner.  These mines were partly under the ocean, and the deeper the water above, the deeper the mine needed to be so it wouldn’t collapse.  It ended up being 2900 feet below sea level, and the trip the miners took just to get to work each day was not a barrel of fun.  They rode in carts, with no protection from the elements, and no light once they were underground, until they reached the end.  Then they had their personal light to work by. 


When the mining company opened, they needed lots of workers for the mines, but the population here wasn’t big enough, so they brought people over from Scotland and Ireland. The work is so dangerous, they were afraid the workers wouldn’t stay once they figured it out, so as they did in Pennsylvania, here the company set it up so that immediately upon arriving, the miners would be indebted to the company, essentially forcing them to stay, whether they wanted to or not.  The miners had to buy their own supplies, from the company, and lived in housing that they rented, from the company.  By controlling the price of supplies and housing, the company was able to ensure that the miners were always in debt. Years later, the miners figured out that if they pulled their sons out of school and sent them to work in the mines as well, they could pay down their debt and start to get ahead, so that’s what they did. The company countered their action- to shore up their control  they closed the mines for periods of time, then offered the miners credit at the store, forcing them to  build up their debt again.


In addition, part of the lease agreement on the house stated that at least one male from the household had to work in the mine.  If the husband died or was injured and couldn’t work, the son (if there was one) would have to take his place- even if he was only 8-9 years old.  If there was no one to send, the family had a matter of days to vacate the house.

The actually mining was grueling work. They would drill holes into the “face” of the mine- the furthest point of the tunnel, blast it to smithereens, then start digging out the coal, once it was in smaller pieces.  The closer you worked to the Face, the more money you made, and the more dangerous your job was.

The coal was brought part of the way to the surface by Pit Ponies. In the early days, these horses lived their entire working lives underground.  Years later, when the unions came into play, and the miners actually got vacation time, the horses would also get two weeks off, and spent it in a pasture above ground. Once the two weeks were up, back down they would go, until  next year.

The museum above ground was really good as well.  I enjoyed the explanation of fossils. Fossils are made of the remains of prehistoric plants or animals, buried and preserved over time.   In order for a fossil to form, there must be a way for the plant to be preserved- usually it’s because the plant landed in water.

Over thousands of years, the mud and sediment around the plant turn to rock, and when the plant finally does decay, it leaves an empty pocket in the rock. Eventually minerals filter through the rock, fill in the space, and turn into a rock shaped like the plant.  Voila!