Thread by @MiningNS

Reclaimed mines are often hidden in plain view! For example, this beautiful lake is the former #Cheticamp #gypsum quarry in Cape Breton. Here’s the history of this amazing site:
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory
@mikekelloway @AllanMacMaster @BAMacQuarrie

Father P. Fiset, parish priest in #Cheticamp, and his nephew Louis, a doctor, formed the Great Northern Mining Company about 1907. To raise funds, they sold shares for 5 cents each in Cheticamp. Shares were also sold in Quebec where the Fisets were well-known.
#nspoli #cbpoli

In spring 1908 equipment for a mill was delivered to Government Wharf and hauled by horse and cart to Bell-Marche where the mill was built. The first #gypsum rock went through the mill on August 20, 1908.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

To prepare for shipping gypsum to Quebec, Father Fiset bought a boat that had been sunk off Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the “Santiago de Cuba,” later renamed “Lamethyst.”
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

In October 1908, #gypsum was hauled by horse and cart from the mine to the mill, and then from the mill to the wharf where the boat was waiting to do its first shipment.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

In 1909, a tractor+trailer were bought to transport the #gypsum from the mill to the wharf. It wasn't like tractors today. It was as big as a railroad engine and had huge wheels that were hard on the road and often got bogged down. It was loud and terrified horses. Not a success!

In 1910 the company decided to borrow $100,000 from P.M. O’Neil, a Montreal merchant, to build a new pier and a railroad from the mill to the wharf. Construction started in 1911.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

The company had financial problems in 1914 and was sold to a Mr. Brodie. The mine kept operating but Brodie was late paying wages. When confronted by the miners, he wrote a cheque that bounced after he was gone. Work stopped in December 1914 and the miners put a lien on the mine.

P.M. O’Neil stepped in to pay the wages but the mine shut down til 1923 when Boston’s International #Gypsum Company operated the site. It also had financial problems and failed to pay the miners, so they again put a lien on the mine. Again, Mr. O’Neil paid the back wages.
#nspoli

O’Neil operated the site for a few months but it shut down again in spring 1924.
In 1926 the Atlantic #Gypsum Mining Company from Boston took over. Atlantic built a bigger mill, a steel building to store the gypsum and a new pier in 1928-29. The railroad track was also changed.

A director of the Atlantic #Gypsum Mining Co. visited Cheticamp in 1930 and donated $5000 for the building of a hospital since people had died travelling to hospital in Inverness in winter. The company donated another $1000 and a hospital was established in Dr. Fiset’s old house.

In 1932 Atlantic opened another mine in #Dingwall, #VictoriaCounty, which meant the #Cheticamp mine would be producing less. Cheticamp’s manager, Joseph MacFarlane, travelled to England in 1933 to find new customers.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

Unfortunately, the outbreak of #WWII in 1939 caused the #Cheticamp mine to shut down permanently. Shipping to England was no longer possible and the Montreal market was too small to justify continued operation of the site.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

#Cheticamp’s last shipment to England was dumped at sea so the boat could immediately be used by the government in the war effort.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory

#NationalGypsum bought the Atlantic #Gypsum Mining Company in 1937. It operated the #Dingwall mine until 1955 when it opened the world’s largest surface gypsum mine in Milford, East Hants.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton #nshistory @NationalGypsum

#NationalGypsum still employs about 100 #NovaScotians in #Milford and at its dock facility in #Bedford Basin.
@NationalGypsum donated the #Cheticamp site to the community and today it is a beautiful swimming hole and hiking trail.
#nspoli #cbpoli #novascotia #capebreton