Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

Hugh McAskill

We tell the stories of tragic accidents in historical mines to honour those miners, and to highlight how different the mining industry is now – Nova Scotia’s mining and quarrying industry has reduced its injury rate by 90% since 1997 and is one of the safer industries in the province today.

However, most accidents in historical mines did not result in fatalities. Hugh McAskill’s close call is an example.

On Friday, March 4, 1898, McAskill was at work in Montague, Halifax County, in the Golden Group Mining Company’s Nugget lead shaft. The shaft had been 55 feet deep, but it was being deepened. Miners had extended it another 35 feet so far.

McAskill had installed a wooden platform at the 55-feet level, at what had been the shaft’s bottom, to protect the men working below as they deepened the shaft.

The mine’s old tunnels headed both east and west from the 55-feet level. There was a dam in each tunnel that held back water that naturally seeped into the tunnels from the surrounding rock. A pipe carried water from the western tunnel to the eastern, and from there the water was pumped to surface to prevent flooding in the mine.

On the evening of the previous day, Thursday, March 3, the men extending the shaft had, per usual, drilled holes into the shaft’s bottom, inserted dynamite, and blasted the rock so it could be hauled out of the mine. According to the Nova Scotia Department of Mines’ annual report for that year, they “must have loaded heavier than usual [used more dynamite], for the blast cut out the platform over the shaft at the old level and disconnected the water pipe….”

Friday morning, McAskill went into the mine, fixed the water pipe and went to examine the western dam. After doing this, “He jumped down off the dam forgetting at that instant that the platform was broken out,” according to the annual report. “He put his arms out to check his fall. He slid down to the bottom, a distance of 35 feet, and landed on his feet, hurting both ankles, somewhat, but breaking some bones in the left ankle and turning the foot up.”

It was about 7:00 a.m. and McAskill was on his own, so he painfully made his way to the “rapper” and used it to signal for the skip (elevator) to be sent down the shaft. He got onto the skip and was hoisted out of the mine with a broken ankle and numerous bruises. A doctor later set his ankle after the swelling had died down.

McAskill survived his accident, which was caused by him momentarily forgetting that the platform installed for safety had been wrecked the evening before. The Halifax Herald called it a “miraculous escape from death” in its March 5 edition and said, “A rumor was circulated that the young fellow was killed, and such was reported in the city this morning.”

Today, the mining and quarrying industry’s goal is to have zero injuries. Nothing is more important than ensuring our friends and colleagues get home safely to their families each night.

McAskill’s job with the Golden Group came through family connections. The mine manager at that time was Alonzo A. Hayward, who worked in a number of Nova Scotia’s historical gold districts in the 1880s and 1890s and ran the Moose River tungsten mine. Hayward had married McAskill’s sister, Georgina, in 1890.

D. McAskill, presumably also a relative of Hugh’s, was the underground manager at the mine. He worked in the Montague district for several years in the late 1890s. According to media reports, a D. McAskill built a “handsome house” in 1903 in Isaac’s Harbour, another historical gold district, but we could find no references to him working as a gold miner there.

The Golden Group Mining Company was formed in 1896 with Alonzo Hayward as one of the founders. The company did work at several mines in Montague, but it shut down in 1898 after, as the December 17, 1898, edition of the Evening Mail described it, “a crushing [of ore] was made, but the result was so discouraging that the directors of the company promptly decided to close down for good and all. The mine lead had run out, and to run it until another strike was made would have meant the expenditure of more money than the company was disposed to lay out.”

However, “The Mail now has great pleasure in announcing that the whole situation has changed and Montague again promises to take her former position among the great gold producers of the province. A. A. Hayward, the well-known mining man and manager of the Golden Group Company, was in town yesterday and announced one of the greatest finds ever made in Montague. Within nine feet of the lead which had been abandoned another was discovered, which bids fair to give the owners a big return for the money invested. The find was made in an accidental sort of way, and when the lead was opened up the pure yellow metal was seen in large nuggets. The surprising part of the find lies in the fact that the ground in which the new lead has been situated has been walked over for years without the slightest indication of gold. Thousands of dollars were spent within a few feet of it, but several companies came to grief, while endeavoring to make the mine pay.”

Despite this find, the Golden Group’s success was short-lived and its name disappeared from mining records as the 1900s began.

The mine in which the Golden Group made its 1898 discovery, pictured below, was previously known as the Annand mine. Charles Annand had a wide range of business interests, but his name will forever be linked to the mine that both made him a fortune and indirectly led to his death. See the story at https://notyourgrandfathersmining.ca/charles-annand