ONCE-PROSPEROUS MINE
Blockhouse employed 400 people and community included church, school, militia
Ken MacDonald writes about a Morien Bay mine that once employed 400.
Most of us who played at the Port Morien ballfield as youngsters gave little notice to the picturesque scenery that it offered.
A gently rolling meadow that rambled to the shoreline afforded a beautiful panoramic view, with a backdrop provided by the expanse of Morien Bay. The tranquility of this scene is in sharp contrast to the bustle of the Blockhouse Mine, which operated on the same site in the late 1800s.
The Blockhouse Mine started on the site of the old historic French Mine, which had last produced coal in the late 1700s. The mine was first owned by Marshall Bourinot in 1858, who sold it to the Belloni family from New York. Under the leadership of Robert Belloni, the mine began production in 1863. Over the lifespan of the mine, it produced almost 1.2 million tons of coal.
The Belloni family invested heavily. A Blockhouse community sprung up around the mine. Houses for miners and mine officials, colliery buildings, carpenter and machine shops, forges, barns and stables were erected. A beautiful home was built by Robert Belloni close to today’s ballfield.
Community activities soon followed.
A Masonic hall was constructed, as well as a school and a Wesleyan Church. The Sinclair Volunteer Rifles were organized as a militia to protect the coal mining operation.
The first mine shaft was dug close to the shore. In addition, an 800-foot wharf was constructed that jutted out into Morien Bay. Eventually a second shaft, the Dawson Pit, was driven near the road at the present ballfield and a small railway went from that shaft to the wharf.
At first, it looked like the mine would be a profitable venture. By 1866, coal cost 60 cents a ton to mine and was fetching $9 a ton on the New York market. Ships lay at anchor for weeks awaiting cargo. Almost 400 workers were employed and the mine produced more than 100,000 tons of coal.
However, dark clouds were on the horizon.
The Reciprocity Treaty with the United States ended and Cape Breton coal was shut out of the New England market. Other markets were difficult to access.
Coal miners went on strike twice in 1868, for a total of three months, and this slowed production greatly. The Blockhouse wharf could never withstand a Morien Bay nor’easter and was repaired numerous times during the lifetime of the mine. After the destruction wrought by the Great August Gale of 1873, the company spent almost $70,000 on repairs, millions in today’s currency.
The mine was refinanced under a different company name. When the mine was barely salvaged after caving in under Hughie’s Brook in 1886, the operation was on its last legs. It closed in 1888.
The sheriff seized the assets in 1894. They were auctioned off and eventually the Dominion Coal Company purchased the property. Buildings were dismantled and moved, some to the Caledonia area of Glace Bay that became known as Morien Hill.
Robert Belloni and his family moved back to the United States after suffering heavy financial losses.
After the operations ceased, bootleg coal was mined on the site for years. The Port Morien gun club operated on the property in the 1960s. In the late 1970s, Devco excavated the old French mine close to the shoreline and opened it along with an interpretative centre for tourists.
Today, there is little evidence
of the bustling community of Blockhouse. Vegetation has reclaimed much of the site. In a wooded area, there are still remains of foundations of some of the miners’ cottages. An ATV trail will take you to the area of the original mine, but there is scant indication there that mining ever took place.
When visiting the area, one can imagine the workers walking to and from the mine, the railway cars laden with coal, rattling their way from the pithead
to the wharf. You can also visualize sailing vessels of all types moored at the wharf or anchored in the bay, waiting patiently to load their precious black cargo. They only live now in history, shrouded in the mists of time.