It's a divided highway that brings you from New Brunswick into Nova Scotia through a marshy area, one that a certain university's students tend to frolic in from time to time, or at least I've heard that they did. Not too long after you pass the marshy low land there's a big blue sign at the side of the road picturing a man wearing a hat with a headlamp. It's a sign for the Miners Memorial Highway. Designated in the fall of 2008, leading up to the 50th anniversary of what is know known as the Springhill Mine Disaster, although there were many, the highway is described by the then Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal: "This highway designation will remind all Nova Scotians and visitors of the sacrifice generations of miners and their families have made across the province[.]" You can read the entire press release from which the above quote was taken here.
I could list the designations, plaques and sites related to mining history in Nova Scotia. I could describe the pain of the weeks, months and years that followed the 1958 bump. I could list the numerous mining disasters that have touched Nova Scotia, Canada and the world in the years since. But as I listen to Bono belt out Luke Kelly's The Springhill Mine Disaster I feel compelled to simply provide you the link and let you listen for yourselves and reflect upon the way of life that mining was, and is, and the legacy that the industry has impressed upon the towns, the province and the region.
What I hope to have communicated with you through this blog post is that there are so many different ways to react to an event like the Springhill Mine Disaster, or to interpret the ways it is presented through YouTube videos, plaques, stories and Twitter projects. I hope you're been able to connect on some level with the past, present and potential future reality of coal mining and the complex relationship that is has with the province of Nova Scotia.
I want to leave you with the most simple and poignant reminder of what happened. A list of the men that died.
http://www.mininghistory.ns.ca/springhill/sp-r-a01.htm
http://www.mininghistory.ns.ca/springhill/sp-r-a02.htm
I hope you're learned and been able to engage with the story that I've related over the past week and a half.
Best,
Rebecca
Your twitter project caught my eye because about 15 years ago relatives in N.S. took us to visit a mine in Springhill; the only mine I've ever been in. In 1958 I was 1 year old in Massachusetts so I knew nothing about it. Thank you.
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