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| The Mines Road, which leads to the former Workington Mine |
Below are some facts that I found regarding the mine.
The Discovery and Start of the Mine
The discovery of the Bell Island Mine iron deposits in the 1800s excited prospectors. This sent them to other areas of Conception Bay searching for iron-rich earth. It was Andrew Colford of Redlands that first discovered iron ore at Lower Island Cove in 1885. However, the first newspaper reports stated that the mine was in Northern Bay. Bluff Head is in Lower Island Cove, and was always the name of a cod fishing berth in the community.
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| Evening Telegram July 7,1886 - Mine Discovery |
Mr. Colford did not have the financial means to develop a mine, and therefore reached out to St. John's businessman and jeweler Robert Sleater. Mr. Sleater had lots of capital. He sent a team of five men, who staked 14 adjoining claims in the area. Colford was given a one-eighteenth share of the venture. However, during 1896 he lost his share to Charles Tessier (a merchant) and Donald Morrison (who was already a claim holder) to pay grocery bills and various debts. This left him no claim to the Mine. Mr. Colford continued to prospect in the area. His three sons also became prospectors.
Donald Morrison was a well educated lawyer. He promoted the mine and sent samples to the H. Spencer and Company in Workington, England. In June 1898 the company sent an engineer to Lower Island Cove to analyze the findings. He later reported back to London that the mine was suitable and they commenced to lease the 14 claims.
Here's an article reporting how mining was to be conducted on "a huge scale". It must have been exciting for the residents in the area reading this kind of news. It would certainly create jobs and wealth in the area. Or would it?
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| The Evening Telegram - May 17, 1898 |
The Railway
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| A typical Workington Iron and Steel Company (W.I.&S.C.) Train with Ore Cars |
Henry Moore was the resident manager of the H. Spencer and Company living in Lower Island Cove. He notified the company that the community didn't have a suitable location or shelter for a shipping pier to handle the iron ore. 150 men were hired to construct a railway to Old Perlican and a large pier was built there. A couple publications mention "The Cliff" in Old Perlican as being the site of the pier. 12 ship loads of wharf cribbing, 9 tonnes of nails and 3000 ft of lumber were used in the pier construction.
The Workington railway was operational from November 1898 to 1901. It was a 42 guage track and built by Baldwin.
This track crosses Pissingmare brook just before getting to the mine site, and there must have been a bridge of some sort spanning this brook. There's a fairly deep depression from what would have been the elevation of the tracks in this location.
There's not much left to the railway now other than the gravel bed in which the tracks were once laid. The old CN railway is still used today as an ATV trail, but the branch to the Workington mine area is now overgrown with trees and not usable for any activity.
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| Overgrown Workington Railbed looking South towards the main mine site |
The mine site was on the south side of Pissingmare Pond. Boilers, Crushers, Machine Shops, luxurious houses for the managers and stores were built. This newspaper clipping from August 1898 describing the schooner Greenleaf heading to Lower Island Cove with machinery for the mine.
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| The Evening Telegram - August 5, 1898 |
Not much remains of the mine site now. It's documented that seven shafts were dug for the Workington Mine operation. Not that long ago, a couple abandoned mine shafts were visible. Shaft #1 was located in the main mine operation area southwest of the pond. From what I can remember, it was nothing more than a large hole in the ground, surrounded by a dirt berm. It contained a lot of water and was basically used as a garbage can for years. This shaft was fenced at one point for safety reasons and to prevent garbage dumping. It has since been infilled with gravel and nothing remains of it (at least above ground).
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| Approximate location of Shaft #1 (now infilled) |
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| Overview of Workington Mine area |
If you look hard enough in the trees surrounding the Shaft #1 area, you can still find chunks of iron ore rock. The gravel is red in areas, due to the high levels of iron in the soil. Some residents of Lower Island Cove have poor tasting drinking water due to the high levels of iron in their hand dug wells.
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| Iron Ore adjacent to Shaft #1 (maybe slag?) |
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| Red Gravel |
There's a couple places where there's traces of where machinery once stood. An old concrete foundation is barely visible near Shaft #1. There's also what remains of a small concrete structure in the trees west of this shaft.
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| Concrete Foundation West of Shaft #1 |
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| Concrete Foundation East of Shaft #1 |
There are some water filled holes and mounds of gravel in the marsh west of the mine area as well which were probably test pits, or perhaps overgrown shafts. Some of these appear very deep and I would not venture too close to them.
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| Mounds of gravel and holes in the marsh to the East |
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| Old fence around 2nd Shaft looking East - Brook exiting Pissingmare pond in distance |
There's also evidence of exploration towards Job's Cove. On the ridge just before you get to Job's Cove Island Pond you will find evidence of mining. In one location a hill of what appears to be loose red rock surrounds a hole in the barrens (labelled 1st Hole in pictures below). Another smaller hole is to the southwest near a marsh (labelled 2nd Hole in pictures below), and a long trench is to the east (labelled Trench in pictures below). All have iron laden rock surrounding them.
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| Signs of mining near Job's Cove Island Pond |
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| 1st Hole - looking southwest |
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| Red Rock around 1st Hole |
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| 1st Hole looking North- Pissingmare pond in the distance |
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| Trench |
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| 2nd Hole |
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| Iron Rock by Trench (or slag?) |
From Aerial views you can see what appears to be a ditch that was probably built in an attempt to shed water away from the mine site near Shaft #1.
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| Drainage Ditch |
It appears that some other communities on the North Shore had iron ore finds as well. Here's an article published in June 1898 where a new seam of iron was found in Western Bay by Mr. Murphy and Mr. Oliver, who were hired by the company to prospect. It also mentions the "bright future" and "large scale" of the Lower Island Cove operation which was about to start.
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| The Evening Telegram - June 21, 1898 |
Like today, people were hoping the area's natural resources would create many jobs, and keep people home, instead of travelling to find work. I guess some things never change.
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| The Evening Telegram - March 18, 1899 |
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| The Evening Telegram - July 17, 1906 |
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| The Evening Telegram - May 30, 1906 |
Mine Assets
What equipment and infrastructure did they have at the Workington Mine? This article from 1903 lists the items that were for sale once the mine shut down. As you can see, there was a lot of equipment at the site. Boilers, Machine Shops, support buildings. It was an elaborate setup.
It's interesting that the railway being sold was just 2 miles and 620 yards long. Measuring on Google Earth, this would be from the mine site to where it connects to the main line of the railway north of the pond. This line goes all the way from Bay de Verde/Grates Cove to Carbonear.
The Reid Government in 1909 wanted the CN railway extended from Carbonear to Bay de Verde. This work was completed in 1915. I guess this new railway connected to the existing Workington railway at Lower Island Cove (rather than them building a whole new track through the area) as a cost saving measure. This would explain why only a couple miles of railway was being sold, rather than the full 7 miles. The Bay de Verde to Carbonear railway was operational until 1930. The railway from the head of the bay into Carbonear didn't close until 1983.
It's also interesting that 4 square miles of land was part of the mine.
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| The Evening Telegram - Febuary 2, 1903 |
A Boondoggle?
All shafts that were constructed at Lower Island Cove produced poor results. Most bodies of ore disappeared after a few yards. Shafts were constantly filling with water. Resident manager Mr. Moore's poor monthly reports back to London in 1898 raised red flags, and as a result, mine directors were asked to travel to see the mine. It was also rumored that Mr. Moore was accused of squandering money. Some say amounts as high as $250,000 which had to be an astronomical amount of money in the 1800s.
After the 1898 visit by the mine directors, H. Spencer and Company decided to sublease the mine to The Newfoundland Iron Ore Company. They didn't have much luck with the operation.
Tragedy in the Mine
Working in an underground mine in the 1800s was no doubt a dangerous job. There were no safety inspectors in those days to identify and remedy operational or safety issues. On May 26, 1899, a terrible thing was reported happening in the No.1 shaft at The Workington Mine while being operated by the Newfoundland Iron Ore Company.
On Saturday eight men were working in the shaft, some of which were clearing debris from the last dynamite blast. R. Barrett and M. Colford were on the drill when they drilled into a charge of dynamite which had not previously exploded. The friction of the drill bit ignited the dynamite which caused an explosion seriously injuring Barrett, Colford and a third man Thorne.
The article mentions them fearing one of the men would die from his injuries, but it didn't say if he did. They mention Barrett having limbs amputated, and Thorne receiving slight head injuries. However, I have since read that R. Barrett was Roland Barrett from Holyrood who later died. Colford and Thorne were said to be from "down the shore" (possibly the Old Perlican) area. However, Colford was most likely related to Andrew Colford of Redlands who discovered the mine.
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Mine Blast Article - Evening Telegram - May 5, 1899
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Mining operations came to a halt after this explosion.
The Beginning of the End
Once restarting the operation after the explosion, The Newfoundland Iron Ore Company managed to bring enough ore to the surface to send one trial shipment to England. However, they were not able to produce enough ore to continue mining. The Newfoundland Iron Ore Company decided to leave the operation in Fall 1899. Mine ownership reverted back to the H. Spencer and Company.
There's wasn't much talk of positive results from the mine in publications. Poor results seem to be the only news. In September 1899 there's are report of large quantities of iron ore being struck at Lower Island Cove. The reader can't help but get a feeling of lost hope from this article. It also gives a hint that claims in the Western Bay area were on hold pending the findings of the Workington Mine.
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| The Evening Telegram - September 11, 1889 |
By early 1900, due to financial difficulties, H. Spencer and Company approached Robert Chambers of the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company who was mining on the other side of Conception Bay at Bell Island. He originally leased the claims but gave up on the idea of further developing the mine after closer investigating the land in 1904.
The Western Star reports poor findings in 1900 in this article. Saying that the owners "built their barns before they raised their crops". This pretty well sums up how the mine was doing. People were getting frustrated with mismanagement and false claims.
Sir Robert Bond
Sir Robert Bond was the last Premier of Newfoundland Colony from 1900 - 1907, and the first
Prime Minister of the Dominion of Newfoundland 1907-1909.
It appears that there were conflict allegations against Sir Robert in 1912, for his involvement with the Workington Mine. The Evening Chronicle newspaper claimed that Sir Robert held shares in the company while Premier, and later claimed that he was also a director of the mine (also while Premier).
Here's Sir Robert's response during an interview June 1912.
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| The Evening Telegram - June 21, 1912 |
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| The Evening Telegram - April 9, 1900 |
Reopening Talks
The article published just before Christmas 1909 mentions how Americans were taking a look at the mine and possibly developing it. It mentions "goodly deposits of iron", so there was still some optimism that ore could be mined at Lower Island Cove.
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| The Evening Telegram - December 22, 1909 |
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| The Evening Telegram - October 17, 1910 |
** Edit Here's an artifact that was found by a blog reader a while ago in the vicinity of Shaft #1. It appears to be an original pickaxe used in the Workington mining operation. A very cool find!
** Edit 2
A connection to Ford automobile manufacturing in Detroit!
It appears that in 1926 Mr. Henry Ford expressed an interest in reviving the Workington Mine. In this article from the Daily Globe 1926-02-02, more ore samples were analyzed and were said to be of higher quality than the ore from Sweden and Cuba! This obviously never got off the ground, but would have probably been a game-changer for LIC and surrounding areas if Mr. Ford had developed the mine.
In Conclusion
I sometimes wonder how Lower Island Cove area would look today if the Workington Mine had been sustainable and production continued.
Will modern technology allow prospectors see what's in the ground and if there's any value to the ore body? I found one document from 2012 which shows 39 claims in the Lower Island Cove area. Will the mining ever happen again? Time will tell I guess. It appears that the potential mineral wealth in the area has not been forgotten about.
Do you have any information on the Workington Mine or old photos you would like to share? If so please contact me! I hope you enjoyed reading about the mine.
S.
