Cape Breton is a very small island which lies just east of mainland Nova Scotia on Canada’s East Coast. It is world renowned for it’s breathtaking beauty, world class resorts, deep rooted Scottish culture and world class musicians. But did you know that Cape Breton was once a leading producer of coal?

I was born and raised in the small coal mining town of New Waterford. The town’s long history in coal production dates back over three hundred years. In the early 1900’s scores of people from all over the world came here to work underground and haul out this “black gold” that heated houses and generated electricity across Nova Scotia. Some of the men who did this dirty and often dangerous work were as young as thirteen years old. These men did everything from shifting pans, loading coal, and trapping doors all in the very dark and damp environment of these mines, some of which went as far as seven miles under the ocean. But the dampness and darkness were the least of their worries. Fires and explosions have always been a threat in coal mines, even in modern times. Though New Waterford was never a town of more than five thousand people, between the years of 1911 and 2001, over five hundred men lost their lives mining coal.

The most tragic time for coal miners and their families came in 1925. No, it wasn’t fires or explosions that was killing the morale of the people. It was a bitter strike that often led to violent, and in the case of one man, deadly protest.

Three months into the strike, on June 11th, 1925, the people of New Waterford had had enough. They were tired of being terrorized by company police for supporting the striking miners, and now the company had cut of the town’s water supply. Three thousand angry men and boys made their way to the Waterford Lake power plant to engage in the infamous “Battle of Waterford Lake.” Some of the officers were beaten, while others chose to swim to the other side of the lake to get away. But it didn’t end there. Company police began firing their revolvers, shooting three miners. Rumor has it, William Davis was on his way back from the store, where he bought milk for his baby, when he accidentally came across this battle. He was shot once in the heart and died. The miners marched the police back into the town where they were to be hung for their actions, but a group of women put a stop to it and the whole affair was pushed aside and soon forgotten by officials. But never forgotten by the people who lived it.

Until the end of the 1900’s, thousands of men made their living underground, to keep the coal they were told future generations would be hauling out of the seams around Cape Breton for the next three hundred years. Coal mining became a proud sub-culture on the island. Many songs were written about men who died mining coal and the ones who, despite the dangers continued to do it. From this sub-culture emerged a choir of about thirty retired coal miners. The now world-famous “Men of the Deeps” have been around the world and back with their tales of men never seeing the sun, pit ponies, and tragedy underground.

Then, with great impact to the people of the Island, it was announced, in 2001, that island coal miners would be hauling coal no more. Prince Colliery produced it’s last coal in November 23rd, 2001. This would prove to be a tremendous blow to the economy and a way of life that was so unique to this corner of the world. Until this time, half of Canada’s coal was produced in Nova Scotia.

Now seventy-eight years later, every June 11th, the people who live in coal mining towns across the province, take the day of school or work to celebrate Miner’s Memorial Day, or Davis Day, as it is often known as. On this day, we not only remember William Davis and that ill fated June morning in 1925, but also all the other men who were killed mining coal and the hardships they and their families had to endure.

The town of New Waterford is probably the town that commemorates it’s rich coal mining past the most. The town is host to the annual “Coal Dust Days” and a national basketball tournament called “The Coal Bowl.” Driving down Plummer Avenue, the town’s main street, you’ll come across the town’s war memorial, and along side it the town’s miner’s memorial telling the story of the 1925 strike and of sixty-five miners who were killed in an explosion at the no. 12 colliery on July 25th, 1917. Not far from this memorial, is another mining landmark, Colliery Lands Park. This park is located on the site of two abandoned coal mines that were once in operation. There is another monument on this site remembering all the other men, who over one hundred years of coal mining, met their fate in the town’s depths. There is also a separate monument remembering one coal miner in particular, who is entombed in one of the abandoned mines, trapped by an underground fire in 1973.

In Glace Bay, another town that’s culture is influenced by coal mining, is another piece of mining history. It’s a model coal mine on the edge of a cliff at the end of a lonely residential street, that is now a museum. It is the last coal mine left on the island that people can go into. Thousands of tourists from all over the world come to see what life underground, where the air is stale and the darkness is never ending, was like.

The future is starting to look promising for Cape Breton Island. It took some adjusting but now new industry has taken the place of the old. Call centers seem to be sprouting almost daily and Island tourism continues to thrive. But you can’t help but notice the effect the closure of the mines had. Many families packed up and headed for better opportunities on the mainland, and many young men headed West to the oil fields of Alberta. Enrollment in local schools has dropped dramatically and the once bustling coal mining towns of Glace Bay and New Waterford are ghost towns compared to what they once were.

Although coal mining is but a memory in these towns, the traditions and hardships will never be forgotten by the people.