Oxford Tripoli Company
A diatomaceous earth mine in East New Annan, Colchester County, later became the favourite fishing hole of a man who had worked there in the 1930s, an example of how former mines and quarries are often hidden in plain view.
Diatomaceous earth, also called diatomite, is a mineral formed by the accumulation of the shells of microscopic diatoms, a type of algae that has thrived in many Nova Scotia lakes since the last ice age. Diatoms extract silica from the lake water to make their shells and, when they die, the shells sink to the bottom of the lake and accumulate.
Diatomite shells are essentially pure silica and very small. Each shell has microscopic pores and spine-like protrusions that form a delicate, lace-like structure that is useful in many applications.
Gardeners are familiar with diatomaceous earth because it is an excellent, nontoxic, insecticide. Pests such as slugs, ants and bed bugs are killed by crawling over the razor-sharp silica shell fragments.
It is also used as a filter in the beverage industry because diatomite is porous and liquids can pass through it, but solids are trapped by it. Diatomite is also used as an absorbent, for example to help clean up oil spills, because it absorbs six times its dry weight.
As a filler, diatomite is used in the tire-making industry and in concrete it makes a stronger, lighter product that is resistant to saltwater erosion. It’s also in pharmaceuticals, paint, cosmetics and art supplies.
Mining of diatomaceous earth in Nova Scotia took place in many locations between 1889-1955, but most notable were deposits on Digby Neck and in the Cobequid Mountains.
For example, a large deposit in Silica Lake at Castlereagh, Colchester County, was developed by the Oxford Tripoli Company in 1889 and produced 540 tons of dry diatomite per year until 1923 when the deposit was exhausted.
Oxford Tripoli then moved to East New Annan where the company produced diatomite from several bogs and small lakes (one of which is also called Silica Lake). The East New Annan operation, pictured below, produced 7,700 tons of dry product between 1928 and 1940 when fire destroyed the plant.
Walter Wall, who worked at the East New Annan mine in 1931 when he was 20 years old, described the operation to the Tatamagouche Light in 2004.
He said the mine was on the Old Stage Road between Tatamagouche and Truro, which is now called the Old Truro Road or Silica Road. The mine’s plant was built on the highest point of land in Colchester County, sometimes called the “Big Rock.”
Silica was found in the area in 1926 in several lakes and ponds, including Burke’s Pond, Roodes Pond and Monkey Lake.
The Oxford Tripoli Company bought 600 acres of land from John Lockerby. The company’s owners were C. C. MacNeil and A. M. Hingley of Oxford, and the foreman was Del Farnell of Collingwood Corner.
Oxford Tripoli brought its machinery from Castlereagh and drained lakes in East New Annan by building dams and digging ditches.
Men went down onto the then-dry lakebeds and dug out the mud that contained the silica/diatomaceous earth. The pit floors were often eight feet or more below surface, so the men cut out squares of mud and tossed them up to shelves about halfway up the pits. There, another crew lifted the mud to ground level and loaded it by hand into trolley cars that hauled it on wooden rails to the plant. The trolleys were about four feet wide and ten feet long. Trucks later replaced the horse-driven trolleys.
At the plant, the trolleys were tipped to dump the mud. Walter’s job was to shovel the mud into a huge tube that was about 86 feet long and bricked in. It carried the mud, while rotating it, over a furnace to dry the mud.
The furnace burned about one cord of wood for each ton of silica produced and logging crews worked steadily in the area to provide the wood.
Waste in the mud was burned off and pieces of relatively pure silica came out the end of the furnace, red-hot from the heat. The silica was carried mechanically to cooling bins made of sheet metal. After several days of cooling, the silica was placed in 80-pound bags for shipping.
Teams of horses and wagons took the bags to a warehouse near the Tatamagouche train station, a distance of about ten miles. The bags were shipped to the company’s plant in Haverstraw, New York, where the silica was ground and sold. A 1931 article said the company was then building a facility to grind the silica before exporting it.
Oxford Tripoli sold its product to several markets, including a sugar refinery in Dartmouth, a cable and glass factory in England, and Goodrich and Goodyear Tire in the United States.
The mine had a cookhouse and bunkhouse so men could stay there during the week, and some built their own camps so their families could live onsite with them. Wages were about seven to 13 cents per hour. Walter Wall was paid 11 cents per hour.
Bernie Tattrie of French River was a trolley driver at the East New Annan mine in the 1930s. He recalled in the Tatamagouche Light article that he was hired rather suddenly on a warm fall day and he did not have extra clothes or a jacket with him. Rain soaked his clothes on his first day at the mine and the other men in the bunkhouse had already taken all the spaces where clothes could be hung to dry. He put his wet clothing under his pillow and it was still cold and wet the next morning, so he leaned against his horse for warmth while feeding it. Bernie said, “On the weekend I got a ride home with Alex Leslie who was working there too and when I went back to work on Monday, I sure took extra clothes and a rain coat.”
The Tatamagouche Light article said, “Today, all the lakes that were drained to mine the silica have filled up with water and most of the remains of the industry are gone.” Bernie said the lake where he worked later became his favourite fishing hole: “I go nearly every day during fishing season and catch lovely trout there.”
