Sydney Mines, Cape Breton

Every once in a while I get nudged into looking back at my birth place in beautiful Cape Breton. This week my oldest daughter sent me a link for the second time which contains triggers to my past. I lived only a stones throw from the CNR Station on the main line of the railroad that brought Canada together as a country. This station is now the museum for the Area and is a perfect setting for our past history.

We lived on a particular piece of land which would for a hundred years furnish the natural resources making Sydney Mines a power house for heavy industry. Men with the ability to see coal under the ocean and the courage to undertake risks and capitol to extract it made for generations of wealth for the owners. One mine in particular called Number 1 but better known as Princess colliery was the largest submarine mine in the world and produced fine coal for over a century without interruption except a few strikes.

This coal made good coke so a modern (best in the world at the time) steel plant was built right in Sydney Mines. Iron ore was close at hand and for years the plant produced excellent grades of steel. A town was built around the industries and soon churches, hotels and all the components that make a stable community became a reality.

As a boy growing up in a coal town there was memories of dust, specially when you helped your Dad haul coal from the wash plant. Every pull of the chain on the coal chute gave a belch of coal dust, especially on windy days. I never gave it much thought at the time but our whole life was centered around the coal. It was not long before the railway turned to oil for their fuel and the steam engines were sold as scrap iron. We still see them at museum sites and we saw the glory days of these beautiful machines die a slow death. Living right there by the tracks and watching the trains pass through had an impact on we kids who used to delight in putting a penny on the rail and see it flattened by the crush of these monsters who belched smoke and steam and while not moving made sounds like a heartbeat.

The slower and smaller coal trains moving the coal from the mine to the coal trussel in North Sydney were a challenge for us to catch a ride. Mom always warned us but we took chances anyway and jumped the train taking us down to the beach in Cranberry.

All this came to a stop when the mines closed, the steel mill was torn down and the business section of the town diminished when the Co-op closed. The hotels which once graced our end of town burned one after another and sort of followed the lack of need for such enterprises. Our town turned shabby for a time as coal tailings were flattened to make baseball diamonds and parks. Lack of industry chased people to the mall built to cover the whole area and people settled in to become a bedroom town. Seniors became an industry and new housing and facilities were built. Sydney Mines now is off the beaten path now but has become a quiet place to retire.

When I go home I always visit the cemetery where generations of Vickers and Browns grace the old resting place for people who lived through the glory days of their town. I also visit Lockman's beach where I picture the Great Eastern laying off shore while the trans Atlantic cable was laid from Great Britain to Sydney Mines. The old building still stands and if you are lucky you can see the bits of cable sticking out of the sandy beach if it survived the people who dug it up for the copper it contained.

I walk the shoreline on the cliffs where during WWII huge guns were placed to guard the harbour and the convoys which left to feed free Europe. There is much more to Sydney Mines than you see by driving through on your way to go over the Cabot Trail. Drop in to the Museum and see our history and oh yes, one of the best collections of fossils found anywhere.

My children were all born in Upper Canada so trips home are essential to make sure they do not lose their proud heritage.