Whiteburn Gold District

A rising tide lifts all boats. That’s as true today as it was in the late 1880s when 20 years of gold mining in the Whiteburn Gold District played a key role in building Northern Queens County.

Gold was discovered in Whiteburn, six miles southwest of Caledonia, in 1885. According to reports, a forest fire ravaged the area and uncovered the gold. Jim McGuire, supposedly hiding out from the tax collector, found it in the barrens near his home and triggered the Whiteburn gold rush. It’s said that he registered the find in his brother’s name and hid his earnings - $5000 in the first year - in the floorboards of his cousin’s house to throw the authorities off his trail.

By 1887 three mines and mills were operating and mining continued until 1905.

The economic activity from mining didn’t just benefit miners. It created what we now call spinoff jobs and economic growth in the area. The miners bought food from local farmers. Jobs were created in forestry because timber was needed for homes, stores, a school, hotels, the mines and other buildings. Wood was also burned for heat and cooking in homes and to power mining equipment. Labourers and carpenters were needed to do the building.

Farmers were particularly big beneficiaries of the mines. Besides selling food to miners and the growing population – Whiteburn grew to 1000 people - a railway built in 1903 to service the mines became important infrastructure that allowed crops and lumber to be sent by rail instead of cart paths. Fresh vegetables, fruits and meat could now be in Bridgewater in just a few hours. The railway also increased access to machinery, chemicals and other modern agricultural supplies.

According to a 1977 federal government report, because of the gold mines “men, machinery, and capital flowed into the area. This tide did not diminish for 20 years and even when it did it left pools of experience and wealth.”

Modern mines and quarries also have this sort of broad, positive economic impact. Some Nova Scotia mines and quarries have been operating and employing Nova Scotians for well over half a century and are economic pillars of their communities.

But operations that have shorter lifespans are still important to their host communities and the province in general. For example, the modern Moose River (Touquoy) gold mine extracted from 2017-23, creating over 300 direct jobs and over 900 spinoff jobs. The average salary at the mine was $84,000 per year. It generated $7.4 million in provincial tax revenue, $3.7 million in municipal tax revenue, and $100 million in economic spinoffs to local businesses. The company donated $1.6 million to community and non-profit organizations.

Environmentally, the Moose River mine was an excellent example of how modern mining is completely different from what it was historically. The mine remediated two historical mine sites and 61,000 tonnes of contaminated soil from past operations by digging them up and moving them into the modern mine’s tailings facility, where they can no longer interact with the environment.

The pictures below show an old safe, claim marker and boiler in Whiteburn.