Coal made Pictou County. In 1827, when the General Mining Association arrived with steam engines, skilled miners from Britain, and a monopoly on all Nova Scotia mineral extraction, they changed the economic structure of an entire colony.
The GMA and Nova Scotia's First Steam Engine The GMA was contracted by the British Crown to develop Nova Scotia's natural resources. Their representatives reached Pictou County in the summer of 1827 and began work at what they called Albion Mines — the site of today's Stellarton. By December of that year, a 20-horsepower steam engine was operating: the first in the province. The GMA held its mining monopoly until 1858, during which time it essentially industrialized northern Nova Scotia.
The Drummond Colliery Disaster, 1873 On May 13, 1873, a routine gunpowder charge set off in Westville's Drummond Colliery ignited methane gas that had accumulated in one of the mine's roadways. The explosion and resulting fire killed somewhere between 60 and 70 men — the exact number was never fully established. It was, at that point, the deadliest industrial disaster in Nova Scotia history.
The Albion Mine Explosion, 1918 In 1918, an explosion at the Albion Mine in Stellarton killed 88 miners. The cumulative human cost of coal extraction in Pictou County was staggering. Mining communities knew this and continued going underground, because the alternative was poverty.
The Westray Mine Disaster, 1992 At 5:20 in the morning of May 9, 1992, an explosion tore through the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Pictou County. Twenty-six men were on shift underground. None survived. A spark from a coal-cutting machine had ignited a mixture of methane and coal dust — a combination that safety inspectors had flagged and that the company had failed to address. The mine had been open for less than eight months.
Eleven of the men were never recovered. They remain entombed in the mine today. The disaster led to Bill C-45, known as the Westray Law, which established criminal liability for corporations whose negligence causes workplace deaths.
Remembering The Their Light Shall Always Shine Memorial Park in Stellarton commemorates the 26 men who died. The Nova Scotia Museum of Industry, built on the site of the original Albion Mines colliery, tells the full story of coal in Pictou County — from the GMA's optimistic arrival in 1827 through the Samson locomotive to the Westray tragedy.