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A community gathering is being held over the weekend to remember the Moose River Gold Mines disaster.
In April 1936, the world listened in as the rescue of three men trapped underground in a gold mine entered its 10th day. On Saturday, the Moose River Gold Mines Museum is holding a ceremony to remember all who were involved.
The three men, the owners and a timekeeper, went down into the mine at Moose River, located about 30 kilometres southeast of Middle Musquodoboit, N.S. The shaft collapsed, entrapping them nearly 43 metres below the surface.
Blain Henshaw, the author of Rescue at Moose River, told CBC Radio’s Mainstreet this week that the mine had not been maintained at the time of the disaster because it had been abandoned.
“There was stories about the legality of the mine and in effect, sadly, what was going on was they were running an illegal mine because they didn’t have the proper permits or licence,” Henshaw said.
“But yet they were underground mining gold and they shouldn’t have been doing that. They did it from the pillars that were left after the mine had been mined out and that weakened the mine further and that brought the roof down.”
Mainstreet NS17:4290 years since the cave-in at Moose River Gold Mines
Ninety years ago today, eyes and ears around the world were rivetted on a small community on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore. Moose River Gold Mines was the centre of a media frenzy as the rescue of three men trapped underground in a gold mine entered its tenth day. Despite being a worldwide story at the time, it’s an event that’s almost lost to history. Jane Sponagle told guest host Vern Ramesar all about it.
The men were rescued by Billy Bell, a 34-year-old diamond driller from New Glasgow, N.S. There was no map or plan of where the tunnels were in the mine. He began drilling where smoke was seen coming out of the ground (the three men who were trapped had built a fire).
He was able to drill about two metres per hour.
“He came with a diamond drill and drilled and drilled and drilled and kept drilling and his boss wanted him to leave after five days or something like that and he refused to leave,” Henshaw said.
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“He kept drilling and drilling and eventually he broke through and that’s where the rat hole idea came from. He broke through and he heard voices and so he talked to them a bit.
“And then the rescue team was coming down from the opposite direction and eventually broke through the rat hole and into the area where the three men were trapped.
“So the hero in all this, at least in my opinion a hero, was Billy Bell because he never gave up.”
Archives11:44Moose River mine disaster
CBC’s J. Frank Willis reports from Moose River, where three men have been trapped in an old gold mine for eight days.
Herman Magill, a lawyer from Toronto and one of the owners, died in the disaster. The survivors were the other mine owner, Dr. David E. Robertson of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, and the mine’s timekeeper Alfred Scadding.
J. Frank Willis covered the disaster in radio updates. This is considered one of the first live broadcasts of news reporting from the site where the news was happening.
More than 100 million listeners tuned in. Henshaw said 58 stations in Canada and 650 in the U.S. aired his broadcast, and the BBC also picked it up.
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Willis worked for the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, which is now the CBC. During the disaster, he broadcast every half-hour for 69 straight hours.
It was during one of his broadcasts that he reported Robertson was out of the pit.
“He’s been placed in an ambulance and he looks well,” Willis told listeners at the time.
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Willis was using a phone to file his reports.
Cheering could be heard in the background.
“[Robertson is] smiling … he smiled at the boys here, the newspaper men. He looked very cheerful. And he’s in the ambulance now. The doctors are bending over him and he is definitely saved and Scadding will be up shortly. This is for the world. They have been saved. They’re out of the mines,” Willis said in his report.
Commemorative ceremony
A commemorative ceremony to honour the volunteers involved in the 10-day rescue as well as the locals who provided food and shelter will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. AT at the Moose River Gold Mines Museum in Middle Musquodoboit.
“People did come together in the hardest time because it was the Depression, but they still gave everything,” Betty Belmore with the museum told CBC Radio’s Mainstreet this week.
Belmore, whose gold miner father assisted in the rescue efforts, described it as an “intense 10 days” that required help from everybody in the area — including local children.
“I talked to one young girl, of course they’re all passed away now, but she learned to bake bread. She was 10 years old … they all had to do whatever they could to help because there were so many people,” she said.
Belmore said the museum is located in a one-room schoolhouse — one of the remaining original buildings from the time of the rescue.
“The museum itself is 40 years old now. And we’ve been doing that for 40 to keep this history alive and keep people interested — and they are. We still get visitors from around the world who have heard the story and want to come and … and hear [about] it from us,” she said.
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