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Gowrie Mine
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Lamp Cabin Memorial Park
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Springhill’s Novaco Mine
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New Glasgow's Linacy Mine
1913 Drummond Fires
1908 Princess Fire
Albion Mines 1913 Fire
DOSCO Miner
Cape Breton's TNT
The McCormick and Turner families
Payday Drunk
John Croak’s Victoria Cross
Atlantic Slag Company
Sydney Cement Company
1914 Coal Mine Cost
Dominion No 2
Canary in a Coal Mine
Draegermen
James Dinn
Pit Ponies
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1877 Accidents
Allan Shaft 1912
William Fleming
The Story of Peat
T. G. MacKenzie
Trenton Steel
1930 Stats
MacGregor Mine Explosion
MacGregor Flood
Torbanite Products Limited
Abraham Gesner and Kerosene
1860 Prince of Wales Visit
Dominion No 5
The Royal William and Stellarton Coal
Tom Pit
Terminal City
1875 Accidents
Cannons in Coal Mines
Princess Mine Explosion
Dominion No. 26
A Tale of Two Mines
Franklin Colliery
Robert J. Grant
Springhill No. 1
Mother Coo
Submarine Mines
Barrachois Mine
Fundy Coal Seam
Dominion #14
Dominion #12
Dominion No 4
Child Labour
Joggins Colliery
Safety
Bootleggers
Richmond County
Mabou Mines
Stellar Coal
English Slope
Maccan/Jubilee
The Foster Pit Fire and the Poop Solution
Thomas Edison and the Chignecto coal mine
Henry Whitney and the Dominion Coal Company
Foord Pit
Hiawatha Coal Mine
Coalburn
Springhill Disasters
St. Rose-Chimney Coalfield
Stellarton, Dorrington Softball Complex
How Does Coal Form?
Drummond Coal Mine
Sydney Coalfield and the Princess Mine
Port Morien, 1720
Port Hood
General Mining Association
Thorburn
WWII and Nova Scotia Coal
Nova Scotia's First Railway
Samuel Cunard
Stellarton’s Mining Connections
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Point Aconi
Victoria Mines
Sullivan Creek
New Campbellton
Inverness and Cabot Links
The Ghost Town of Broughton
Tobin Road, Sydney Mines
Flint Island Coal Mine?!
What does Colliery mean?
Cottam Settlement
Allan Mine
Safety
Nova Scotia’s mining and quarrying industry has reduced its injury rate by 90% since the Westray inquiry report was released in 1997, making mining one of the safer industries in the province. We believe the most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner, and our modern safety record reflects this.
Today, our goal is to have zero injuries in our workplaces. Nothing is more important than ensuring our friends and colleagues get home safely to their families each night.
Unfortunately, mining was often a very dangerous job historically. A Government of Nova Scotia database of fatalities in the province’s mines from 1838-1992 suggests there were at least 2,584 deaths in that period (https://archives.novascotia.ca/meninmines/fatalities/).
Safety is one of the main reasons we say that modern mining is “not your grandfather’s mining industry.” We are committed to continuous improvement in safety and to making sure these tragedies never happen again.
The frequency of accidents in historical mines is illustrated by the Nearing family of Stellarton.
According to “The Pictonian Colliers” by James Cameron, Dominic Nearing was born on August 7, 1880, in a house owned by the Halifax Company in the Foster Pit Road area of Stellarton.
Three months after Dominic’s birth his father, Joseph Nearing, was killed in the Foord Pit explosion of November 1880. His father’s remains were not recovered until miners broke through into the Foord Pit from the Allan Shaft in 1926.
Dominic, then 46 years old, had no memories of his father but the recovery of his remains in 1926 meant that he then had his father’s miner lamp, which was made of brass and had been recovered when his father’s skeleton was found.
When Joseph Nearing died, there was no financial compensation for his widow and their three small children other than an informal collection taken up by his fellow miners for the families of those killed. Dominic’s mother, Flora, provided for her children after Joseph’s death by working as a washerwoman in the Norfolk Hotel in New Glasgow.
Flora was no stranger to tragedy in the mines. Her father had been killed in Stellarton’s Cage Pit.
Dominic married Ruth MacNeil whose father, Dan MacNeil, was killed in an explosion at the Vale coal mine.
Dominic also earned his living underground until he was elected to office in a trade union. The union position may have saved his life. He eventually passed away from natural causes in 1969 at the age of 88.
Sadly, after Dominic retired, his son, John, died in an explosion at the MacGregor mine in 1952.