Painting
Inverness Miners' Museum
Tous droits réservés.
| Nom de l'objet : | Painting |
| Artiste ou artisan : | Fraser, Doug |
| Catégorie de l'objet : | Communication Artifacts |
| Sous-catégorie de l'objet : | Art |
| Matériaux : | Fire, canvs Paint |
| Technique de fabrication : | Painted |
| Numéro d'accession : | 1980-102 |
| Fabricant : | Unknown |
| Nom du marchand : | Unknown |
| Date de fin de production : | 19800000 |
| Description : | A painting of a single storey building with two doors next to a wooden, single storey building with no windows and a sliding door. In the foreground are two sets of railway tracks. |
| Commentaires : | This painting depicts the railway station and freight shed at Inverness built in 1901. The building was built, according to a stock plan, with a rectangular wooden frame and large overhang. A bay window on the front housed the telegraph and ticket agent's office. Inside was a waiting room with benches and a storage area for luggage. The building was originally painted grey with green trim but has since been repainted red with white trim. The railway was required to transport coal mined in the area to the harbour to be shipped to the United States and later the St. Lawrence market. As Harold Innis noted, natural resources are of little use unless there is sufficient demand and transportation infrastructure to supply that market at a reasonable price. The coal seams in Inverness County are part of the Sydney coal field which begins in Sydney Harbour and extends to the Strait of Canso and up towards Newfoundland for approximately twenty-five miles. Along the western coast of the island there are four deposits: Mabou, Port Hood, Inverness, and Chimney Corner-St. Rose. At Inverness, there were four commercially viable seams. The coal within was of a lower grade than that in the Sydney area seams; it was a volatile 'C' bituminous coal suitable for domestic consumption. Throughout the years, attempts were made to open all four seams in Inverness. Earlier attempts to mine coal commercially in Inverness all failed. In 1865, one square mile was leased to McCully and Blanchard who wished to open a seven foot seam. Their attempt to organize funding in London failed and although they raised fifty tons in 1867, they did not build a colliery to store the coal. In 1872, a second attempt was made by Alexander Wright and J. Harry Ladd but the company collapsed after a few erratic years. In 1888, William Penn Hussey established the Broad Cove Coal Company. He sought investment in the mine from wealthy Europeans, finally securing funds from Swiss investors. Hussey returned to Inverness to initiate operations at the Big River seam. To create a transportation system for his coal, Hussey dredged a channel between the coast and MacIsaac's pond. He also built a gage railway to carry coal to the harbour two miles away; in 1897, he brought the first steam engine to Inverness to pull his cars. In addition, Hussey built company houses for his miners. In 1899, Broad Cove Coal Company employed 300 men and produced 4000 tons of coal weekly. That year, however, Hussey decided to dissolve his company. Hussey's company was taken over by William MacKenzie and Donald Mann. The two were involved in railway development; they built a line from Broad Cove to Port Hastings in 1901 and later extended it to Point Tupper. That year they organized the Inverness Railway and Coal Company to open the No. 1 seam and two more were opened within two years, No. 2 and the Big River seam No. 3. The IR&CC built a series of company houses and management houses in the town and miners flocked to the area, including a number from Belgium. The Belgian miners had heard about the mine from Hussey's earlier European visit; they formed Belgian Town within the community of Inverness. Mining boomed until 1915; in 1904, the company employed 482 men but by 1917, that had increased to 725 although it had levelled off to 751 in 1923. As mining peaked so did the railway line; the company boasted thirteen years of surpluses through the freight lines. The profits peaked in 1908 with 322 000 tons of freight hauled mostly from the mine. The increase in people also led to an increase in business for the town. On April 6, 1904 the town incorporated with 3000 citizens. Following a series of poor financial decisions, however, the company entered receivership in 1917. In 1911, IR&CC had bought a new hoist which took two years to assemble and was expensive to operate. Further, by 1915, a plaster fault had cut off access to the No. 1 seam. Unable to relocate the seam, the company opted to convert to retreat mining instead of forward room and pillar mining. In room and pillar mining, pillars of coal are left to create stability and hold up the roof as mining continues forward. In retreat mining, the pillars are removed causing the roof to collapse and the shaft to shorten. Although room and pillar mining is more expensive, especially when the shaft moves under the ocean, retreat mining substantially shortens the life of a mine and is more dangerous as the incidents of collapse and falling rock increase. In addition, as the profits from the mine fell so did those from the railway line. Eastern Trust took over the receivership of the company in 1917. By this time retreat mining was in operation and although one hundred additional miners were hired in 1918, at least one miner was killer annually between 1901 and 1947. The worst disaster occurred in 1924: four miners, Dan C. MacIsaac; Archie A. MacIsaac; Dan MacDougall; and Neil MacIsaac, were killed while removing a pillar. In addition, in 1923, a substantial portion of the business district was lost to fire. Although IR&CC regained control for two years beginning in 1919, the company again went into receivership. Eastern Trust was unable to garner a profit from the mine despite the sail of the railway, the non-renewal of equipment, and the provincial government's absorption of the deficit. In 1924, Canadian National Railway leased the Inverness line with a three term annual rental of $25 000 with an option to buy at any point. On August 7, 1929 CN purchased the line at a cost of $375 000; CN paid for the rolling stock and equipment, rights, franchises, powers, property, and assets with the exception of the wharf at Port Hastings. The company promptly dismantled all the equipment except the snowplow and the rolling stock was sent to Moncton to be replaced with CN stock. The seven locomotives were scrapped at Inverness. The line operated as a regular CN branch and employees from the old company were awarded seniority based on their prior status. In 1932, the Eastern Trust withdrew from receivership and the mine operated as a coop for a year after which the Department of Mines oversaw operation as the Imperial Coal Company. The Department was advised to close the mines as they continued to run an increasing deficit. The No. 1 mine was suffering from the decision to retreat mine; the increased pressure on the ceiling produced slack coal instead of nut coal which was less marketable. In addition, flooding was a problem in the lower levels so mining was restricted to the upper levels which were prone to rock falls and crumbling pillars. Increasingly concerned for the miners' safety, the government closed the No. 1 shaft in 1934 although some work did continue until 1939. The demand fell on the No. 4 mine which was far inferior. An additional night shift was added to accommodate the miners who had worked in the No. 1 shaft but the mine closed in August of 1942. In 1941, the No. 3 and 5 shafts were reopened but surveys three years later suggested the remaining coal was not workable. It had a high clay, ash, and sulphur content which made it expensive to mine, difficult to sell, and more prone to fire. It was not until 1953, however, that the mine was closed. It was estimated that between 1865 and 1951, 8 400 000 tons of coal was raised but between 1924 and 1951, the government absorbed a deficit of $3 244 944. For the subsequent twenty years, small, private operations continued to mine but they were minor organizations. Following the mine's closure, many of the businesses left the town as did the miners. Some went to work in the New Waterford mines while some of the younger men went to the hard rock mines in Elliott Lake, Ontario. The company houses were sold in 1953 with preference being given to current occupants. The railway line reduced service from daily to weekly and eventually stopped it altogether. The 1950s and 60s saw the introduction of a number of government programs as well as a great deal of industrial investment in the Strait area. As mining operations dwindled so did the demand for the line; CN ran the last passenger train on the line on April 25, 1959 and freight service was reduced to once per week. In 1975, the company made an application to abandon the subdivision from Port Hastings Junction to Inverness. The line closed in 1981. The building still stands and now houses the Inverness Miners' Museum. The station along with the freight shed have been designated a provincial heritage property as it is one of only two stations surviving along the Inverness line, the other is at Port Hood. This painting was created by Doug Fraser. Fraser is a self-taught artist who was raised on Cape Breton Island. He now resides in Inverness. He paints his rural surroundings using oil on canvas. Fraser's art can be describes as realistic; he paints what he sees without an interpretation or embellishment. The realist movement arose in the late nineteenth century with the development of photography. It was paralleled with the intellectual positivist movement; the emphasis was on an objective understanding of nature. Realist painters depicted common, everyday scenes that often portrayed the working class. This particular painting was based on a photograph in the museum's collection. |
| Longueur : | 92 |
| Largeur : | 76 |
| Unité de mesure linéaire : | cm |
| Nombre d'objets : | 1 |
| Nombre de parties composantes : | 1 |
| Étiquette ou poinçon : | Written in lower left corner: Doug Fraser/80 |
| Établissement : |
Inverness Miners' Museum
 Facebook-Inverness Miners' Museum
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| Ville de l'établissement : | Inverness |
| Province de l'établissement : | Nova Scotia |
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