WHERE THE WHISTLE BLOWS
Coal mines brought good times and bad to New Waterford.
Do you remember your father, or brother, or maybe even yourself walking into the house covered from head-to-toe in black coal dust after a long day’s work?
There was a time in New Waterford where seeing that picture was an every day occurrence. It was something most residents looked forward to seeing at the end of the day because it meant their family member survived another day working underground in the mines.
Like many towns, New Waterford was a coal-mining community with many collieries based in and around the surrounding communities.
The mines became a way of life for many local residents, some not finishing school so they could work in the mines to help their families, which then employed hundreds of people. It was a tough job but the men never complained about a hard day’s work as they knew what they were doing was best for their family and a way to make a living.
At one time, many thought the coal miners in New Waterford would be around forever, with a promising future and the creator of jobs for years.
But with good times also came the bad times. The collieries at No. 5 closed in 1925, followed by No. 14 closing in 1932. Meanwhile, No. 16, one of the biggest mines in Canada, shut down in 1963, while No. 12 closed in 1973 after a fire claimed two lives.
At the time, things were not looking as promising as they once were in the New Waterford community and it had many residents worried about the future. That would change again with the addition of Phalen and Lingan collieries between 1972-1975, opened by the Cape Breton Development Corporation, also known as DEVCO, a federal government crown corporation.
In the late 1980s, production problems at DEVCO saw the closure of older mines inherited from DOSCO, with production focused more towards Lingan, Phalen and Prince collieries. It led to more optimism for the New Waterford and surrounding communities, with two local mines operating.
But again, more problems would come with flooding and roof-falls at Lingan, which later saw production ceased at the mine in 1992, just months short of the colliery’s 20-year design limit.
There was still a light at the end of the tunnel for residents as the Phalen mine would continue as the only source of online traffic for the DEVCO Railway. But with flooding and roof-falls at that mine, it would cause increased production costs during a time of fiscal restraint by the federal government.
With questions being asked about the future of the coal mines, the community received more bad news. With rising subsidies for DEVCO, the federal government would announce it would be getting out of the coal industry in January 1999, and would finish mining the remainder of Phalen mine by the end of that year.
Later that year in September, Phalen colliery would close for good, laying off 400 employees. Some miners from Phalen would be moved to Prince colliery in Point Aconi, roughly a 45 minute drive from New Waterford, where production continued, before being trucked from the mine to the Victoria Junction preparation plant, and taken by rail to the Lingan Generating Station in Lingan.
Production would last at Prince colliery for two years, following Phalen’s closure, but was closed for good in November 2001, after the federal government failed to entice private sector investors to purchase the mine, with more jobs lost in Cape Breton.
Today, there are no mines being operated in New Waterford. The town’s population is not what it was when the coal mines were in operation, but the spirit of the mines, the memories of the good times and bad and stories that last a lifetime are still talked upon by former coal miners and long-time residents of the community.
The memory of the coal miners who lost their lives also remains strong with Miners’ Memorial Day held each year on June 11.
On New Waterford’s main street, Plummer Avenue, there is a tribute to the miners who were killed in the July 25, 1917, No. 12 explosion, which marks its 100th anniversary this year.
The tribute also tells the story of the strike of 1925, where a group of miners marched to the Waterford Lake Power Plant, where within a melee with company police, one miner, William Davis, was shot and killed fighting for the rights of miners and the town.
Jeremy Fraser is a reporter for the Cape Breton Post. The 23-year-old graduated from Holland College in Charlottetown, P.E.I., with a journalism diploma, and has been working in the journalism field for the past nine years. His monthly column “Where the Whistle Blows” will feature the past, the present and the future of the New Waterford and surrounding communities, looking at the community and sports history, and the people, as well as the issues and conversations surrounding the area. Jeremy can be contact by email at jeremy.fraser@cbpost.com or follow on Twitter @CBPOST_Jeremy.