Photo by Bob Coakley
Text of the Coal History Information Sheet given to Coal Miner’s Lung mountain bike racers.
Coal from the Grand Lake area was used as early as 1639 by French traders and settlers at their fort at the mouth of the Saint John River in New Brunswick, Canada.
By 1643, Grand Lake coal was being sold by the French to the British colony at Boston. This commercial trade in coal along the east coast has been recognized as the First Export of Coal in America and a National Historic Event by Parks Canada. More information is available at Parks Canada, and at a Historic Sites Monument in Minto, New Brunswick.
During the 1600’s, local Indigenous people used coal occasionally, and helped the French get it. Coal had been used in Europe for over 200 years and was a very valuable resource for the blacksmiths in pioneer settlements. The French sent experienced miners to pioneer settlements to search for and process minerals. Early mining was done with picks and shovels where coal was visible on the surface or exposed by erosion along the streams running into the lake.
In the 1700’s, the area was under British control and the population increased rapidly. Coal was found and mined at many sites near the head of Grand Lake. It was mined by various methods depending on the depth of the coal seam and other factors. For Strip Mining, everything from men with picks and shovels to horses pulling scrapers to Draglines weighing millions of pounds were used to strip away the earth covering the coal seams. Miners and equipment would dig out the coal and haul it away. Long, deep Cuts in the earth and lines of Mud Dumps near the Cuts were left after an area was mined. Much of the mined land has been reclaimed, reforested and re-purposed. It makes excellent mountain bike trails!
For Underground Mining, most mine shafts were dug vertically down to the coal seam, then tunnels (called Levels) were dug horizontally beside the coal seams. Some Slopes (Levels) were dug into the side of hills or riverbanks. Miners dug the coal and wheeled it back to the shaft, or slope opening, in carts that usually carried over 300 pounds of coal.
NB Coal Pamphlet
Early miners and the coal they dug were raised up the shafts by ropes attached to horses on the surface. Power equipment was used after 1892. Large Shaft Houses were built for the power and hoisting equipment, and to load the coal into vehicles or railroad cars. Early and early-modern mining was done by individuals and private companies.
In 1969, the New Brunswick Government created NB Coal Ltd., purchased the private mining companies and continued mining until 2009 when coal mining in New Brunswick was discontinued.
Shaft house and Dragline Models at Minto Bike Race, June 17, 2017
Eloie Thibodeau, former Coal Miner, June 17, 2017 just days before 90th birthday, visiting Mine History display
Scale models of the largest Dragline to work the Grand Lake coal basin (the Marion 8200-21R, used 1979 to 2009) and of the last Shaft House to be worked in the area (used until 1969) were built by NB Coal Ltd under the supervision of Eloie Thibodeau. They were donated by Énergie NB Power, the parent company of NB Coal Ltd. to the Village of Minto.
