Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

Waverley in 1934

Desperate to make a living during the Great Depression, some unemployed men turned to gold mining in Waverley, but it did not work out.

Gold was discovered in Waverley, Halifax County, in 1861 on the farm of Charles P. Allen. The area had over 30 gold mines by 1864, and Waverley's population grew from 200 to 2000 by 1868.

However, Waverley, like many of Nova Scotia’s historical gold districts, was largely idle much of the early 1900s until the province’s third gold rush was triggered in 1932 by a significant increase in the price of gold. Gold had been valued at about US$18-21 per ounce since the mid 1800s but jumped to US$34-35 per ounce in the early 1930s. Gold has always been considered a safe investment in troubled economic times and its value soared during the Great Depression.

Despite the high price of gold at the time, many companies struggled to make a profit during the province’s third gold rush. The province produced 1.2 million ounces of gold in the century after it was discovered in Mooseland, but the third gold rush only produced 158,000 ounces despite its more sophisticated science and technology.

These statistics, only available in hindsight, might have served as a warning to a group of unemployed men who tried mining in Waverley in 1934.

A 1934 memo in the files of the Nova Scotia Department of Mines discusses an inspector’s visit to Waverley on September 17 that year. The inspector, not named in the memo, said he had spoken to A. T. Milligan “who acted as agent for a group of unemployed men who were working in the district under a special license….”

The unemployed men had cleaned out the main shaft on the Dominion lead (a gold-bearing quartz vein) to a depth of 80 feet and they extracted 14 tons of ore. (Ore is the rock that hosts a mineral). “This was crushed at the ten stamp mill erected on the site of the old Tudor Mill,” according to the memo.

They also cleaned up the Hardy shaft, deepened it by 20 feet and tunnelled 30 feet to the west and 10 feet to the east. This work generated an additional 45 tons of ore for the mill.

The Barrel Quartz lead on Laidlaw Hill was worked by Alex. N. Stephen who extracted and crushed nine tons of ore that year.

The memo concluded, “As the returns from this work were in most cases not sufficient to recompense the men for their labor after the milling charges, trucking, etc. had been deducted most of the men left to work on the construction of the new road from Waverley to Bedford.”

The unemployed men’s agent, Alexander T. Milligan, was 42 years old in 1934. His parents had immigrated to Nova Scotia from Scotland, and he lived in Waverley. He worked in the family’s grocery business, the 1931 census listing him as a “merchant.”

While researching Milligan, we stumbled across his small role in another piece of Nova Scotian history.

Alexander had five siblings, one of whom was Gilbert D. Milligan, a victim of the Halifax Explosion when, on December 6, 1917, two ships collided in the Narrows of Halifax Harbour during the first world war. One of the ships was carrying explosives and the resulting blast devastated much of the North End of Halifax and flattened wooden buildings on both sides of the Narrows.

Gilbert, who lived at 557 Gottingen Street, died the following day at the Victoria General Hospital from “Shock, due to injuries in explosion,” according to the Halifax Explosion Death Registration Book.

Gilbert, 21 years old at the time of his death, was single and also worked in the family’s grocery business. He was buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

Alexander, then 26, identified his brother’s body.