Interview with Angus A MacLeod Marion Bridge Formerly of Framboise May 8, 2019
JEANETTE: I understand that you and Billy and John James worked at the mine.
ANGUS: Billy worked there, I don’t know about John James. Billy had a good memory. He could have told you a lot.
JEANETTE: What did Billy do there?
ANGUS: He was on the surface.
JEANETTE: Did he do carpentry work?
ANGUS: It could have been carpenter work. I did some too.
JEANETTE: You worked underground for a little while?
ANGUS: I was on the surface first and then I went underground.
JEANETTE: You (would have been) only a young fellow when you were working at the mine.
ANGUS: I think I started working at the mine right from the start with Roddie and them. I’m pretty sure. There might have been a lot of work just before that.
JEANETTE: So, you said the mine closed in 56.
ANGUS: 55, I think.
JEANETTE: So, it didn’t run that long.
The 20/30’s Mine
JEANETTE: Looking at picture of the mine (Photo #1 – This is the old mine that ran in the 20’s and 30’s. And you know where the Glory hole was?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: It was a little bit to the left of the Glory hole, wasn’t it?
ANGUS: Oh, Yes.
ANGUS: It was to the left (in the picture) and the Glory hole was down (to the right).
JEANETTE: That was quite the operation in the 30’s but you didn’t hear any stories about that, right -where the buildings went or the houses?
ANGUS: No. I looked at it and I knew it was different (from the layout of the 1950’s mine).
The mine owned homes
JEANETTE: (Talking about Angus and Alice’s home, sitting at their dining table). This is a big house. It’s one of the bigger houses.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: It looks a bit like the one down at Kenny Dan’s but this one is bigger right?
ANGUS: Yes, well of course the sun room is on there and a bedroom added on .
JEANETTE: But the front of the house is the same size as it was originally.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Down the mine road on the right side there were a lot of houses behind John G’s. This could have been one of the houses.
ANGUS: No. They were on the left
JEANETTE: OK. There were three big houses on the left.
ANGUS: The three houses were on the left. When you went down there, there were bunkhouses.
JEANETTE: (Showing the photo #2 and points to the long buildings on the left). These are the bunk houses, would you agree?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And that one there (3rd one in) would be the mess hall where they ate.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: So, the house you got would be up on the hill somewhere?
ANGUS: The three of them were alongside each other (Angus points behind the bunkhouses).
JEANETTE: So, that would make sense because as you are going down the(mine) road (from the main Rd) , I don’t know if you know, there’s an internet tower on the left side of the road and I was told they were in that proximity.
JEANETTE: Were they all the same size?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And were they right in a row?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you know where the other houses went?
ANGUS: When the mine closed, the houses were for sale. Anyway, there were the three houses. When Danny and I got there the day before the opening - we went in there together to look at the houses and they were nice and all that so anyway we had left. Danny got one, I got one and Norman Alex he got one.
JEANETTE: The first house (Norman Alex’s).
ANGUS: And it was put out in Framboise by the store.
JEANETTE: Across from Dan Norman’s?
ANGUS: It would be down a little further on the other side of the road. That would be after you’d go around the turn and the house would be there.
ANGUS: Well that house, Danny and I were going to go out together in the morning. The guy wasn’t in the first day we were out, I don’t think. We were supposed to go back in the morning. We were going to leave early - 8 or 9 0’clock. He (Danny) was supposed to pick me up. We could have gone together. He wasn’t coming, wasn’t coming and I went. Anyway, we met at the gate and he said the house is rotten at the back end. That would be down by the bathroom there. So, he says, “So I didn’t bother with it”. He had a deposit on it.
JEANETTE: The right-hand side. There was one at the beginning of the road.
ANGUS: Yes. That was the manager’s house.
JEANETTE: Yes.
ANGUS: It’s in east Bay.
JEANETTE: Ah. That’s the one that is in East Bay at the Meadows.
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: So anyway, I went looking at the house (that Danny didn’t buy). The guy came with me and everything. Anyway, I told the guy I’d take this house - $400.00 - I only paid for it. It is a story and a half. There was nothing wrong with it. There was only a little (damage) – there was steam heat that was in it and the steam heat got close and got rot in it. I looked at it and I said I’d take it for 400 bucks.
JEANETTE: Was that the one you were originally going to buy?
ANGUS: Danny was going to take that one. The three of them were gone and I was going to have to take one of those that Dan Norman got there. You know, Dan Norman’s is still there in Framboise. So, I went down. Those houses were $1000.00.
JEANETTE: OK
ANGUS: So, when he (Danny) said that, I shifted over to the big one.
JEANETTE: So, you went back to the one of the three on the left-hand side -that Danny was going to buy but it was rotten. So, the manager gave you a deal and you fixed it up.
ANGUS: The house was there from the time the mine closed in 1955 to 1959. My house - I never moved it. All the other ones were all gone. So, mine was still there. There was nothing wrong with it. The only thing that was wrong with it that I didn’t notice when I looked inside (was) the big window was broken. The front window where that one is there (Angus points to the replacement window). So that’s the one I got. It had two side windows.
ANGUS: So, I told Dan Alex what I paid for it and I paid him, and I left it there until I got more money.
JEANETTE: So, you bought your house for $400. Did Danny Burns end up getting one of the (other houses)?
ANGUS: No.
JEANETTE: So, you got one house, Norman Alex got the other. And who had the third house?
ANGUS: I’ll tell you who got one of those houses, Dan Alex MacLeod, the Miller. He moved that into where his mother was at which Danny inherited.
JEANETTE: So, Norman Alex, he took that house down to Framboise, but it burnt down right?
ANGUS: Yes. It burnt
JEANETTE: Then he got another building from the mine afterwards. That’s there now across from Dan Norman’s, well actually down the road from Dan Norman’s, closer to the store. George Norman Alex (MacLeod’s) son, Alexander, told me that a house came from the mine. It was one of the manager’s and he said it was put down there in Framboise and then it burnt and then they got another building from the mine.
ANGUS: I think where the house burnt they might have put the other one right there.
Alice: A house similar to this, but smaller, the one MacVicar was in over there on the Sanfield/Intervale Road. Part of it burnt.
ANGUS: That was up on John G’s land. On the way down to the mine there was a road going up (pointing to the right). Big Dan Norman -
JEANETTE: Yes
ANGUS: His house was up there.
JEANETTE: So, Dan Norman’s (MacLeod) house came from the mine?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And Kenny Dan (MacLeod) but I think someone said Boston Dan bought that house (Initially).
ANGUS: Ok, yes
JEANETTE: Boston Dan and Kenny Dan, I think they were brothers.
JEANETTE: So that (house) probably came from up on the hill behind john G’s
ANGUS: Oh yes, because any house that was there - there were three houses on the mine property - went on the other property outside the gate.
JEANETTE: So, your house was inside the mine?
ANGUS: Yes
The gate
JEANETTE: I’m not sure where the gate was.
ANGUS: It was, you know Shaw’s store and the restaurant - There was a building on the right-hand side before you turn into the gate, like a little bungalow (see photo #2).
JEANETTE: Oh yes.
JEANETTE: The gate was after the stores wasn’t it?
ANGUS: Yes
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: Do you remember the bus?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: Did you ever go on it?
ANGUS: I went to Sydney on it. (Laughs). My father used to go in on it. He used to get a kick out of the bus driver.
JEANETTE: So, your father got a kick out of the driver.
ANGUS: If you wanted something from Sydney, Hughie, he’d get it. He’d say, “How’s the red army today”. There was so many of us.
ANGUS: I think it was pretty regular.
JEANETTE: Every day, when the mine was running.
ANGUS: Maybe not.
JEANETTE: There was a song written about it- “The rattling Stirling bus”. Do you know who wrote it?
ANGUS: No.
Looking at pictures
JEANETTE: So, this (Photo # 34) is the conveyor belt here that would take the ore up to the mill.
ANGUS: The mine would have been down here. And they had a big conveyer going down here. into the (underground).
JEANETTE: Here’s the back side of it (Photo #35 ). You can’t see the building you are talking about but here is the conveyer belt and here is the mill here.
ANGUS: That’s the mill, yes. This is the underground here (pointing at the white building near the conveyor belt.
Deaths and injuries
ANGUS: That’s where the fellow from Gabarus got killed pointing at the top of the conveyor belt.
JEANETTE: Yes, his name was Howard burns, right - Dan Alex Burn’s son?
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: He got caught in a belt.
JEANETTE: Was that a conveyor belt?
ANGUS: Yes. I think he was a watchman, making sure everything was all right. I think he was stationed there on his shift. Whatever happened, something got caught. and he went to grab it or move his arm or by chance he got caught in it.
JEANETTE: And pulled him into?
ANGUS: The head pulley (roller). Where the belt was there (this would be turning), so the conveyer belt would move over that.
JEANETTE: So, he got caught in it
ANGUS: He got caught in it and he went right into the ore there.
ANGUS: There might have been an alarm on that. To get up there they had to walk all the way up the conveyor to get where he was at. He was dead when they got to him anyway.
JEANETTE: Do you know of anyone else who died in the mine? I heard there were two.
ANGUS: Two that I know of. There could be a possible three. I got hurt there. I got hurt there twice when I was underground.
JEANETTE: Did something fall on top of you?
ANGUS: Yes, a big slab overhead. I was on an electric motor towing the ore up. Two fellows from Inverness, they got on there. You went down and went in. There was a narrow tunnel/ drift and there wasn’t too much space between the wall and the cars. It was just narrow. Anyway, the first night everything went right. Went down the second night we went in there and the way the shoot was, it was in the wall and it came out, but It was hung from the ceiling and It came out over the track. Not quite over the track. There were two planks on steel that was coming down from the roof. There was one lower and there was one higher. So, you’d pull the low one out and I’d fill the car. So, the second night we were at the same thing. I told them, see one fellow had to be on one side and the other fellow on the other side to lift the plank up for the stuff to go into the car. So, when the car was full, you’d just dropped the plank, and everything was stopped. So, anyway, the next night, we were at the same shoot and everything. And of course, I told them about the lifting of this plank and not to stand in front and get up on the side.
JEANETTE: Yeah!
ANGUS: So, I had the motor out here.
JEANETTE: (to the left)
ANGUS: And this guy was out here. He wasn’t on the motor or anything and then the shoot plugged up. There was nothing coming so I had a long bar, so I went up and I said, “I have to go up here and I’m going to use the bar and try to get that going”. The plank, I think the top, I don’t’ know if it broke or it slid over it, but anyway, it let go and the roof let go. I was kind of aimed sideways and I told that guy not to go in there but to be at the edge of the plank and it landed right on top of the car. It slid down. I think it slid over the plank and then it rested right on top of the car and jammed in the wall. So, there I was. So, I got down anyway and I had to crawl on my hands and knees on the ground. Underneath the car because the rock was so high, and it was only narrow.
J: Wow
ANGUS: I was covered in blood. So, I got on the motor. The fellow noticed and he got on and the other fellow got on it and we went up with the ring. We were on the 300 and the first thing you do is pull the cord- one, two, three. Then you step back and wait a second or two then you do the rest of them.
JEANETTE: What was that for?
ANGUS: To take you up
JEANETTE: So, they’d know where you were?
ANGUS: And I got mixed up with all the …
JEANETTE: Commotion, yeah!
ANGUS: So anyways they were hoisting stuff up there, up and down, and dumping it into the shoot to go to the mill. So anyway, they kind of stopped everything but they came to figure there was a third level, so they let the thing down and when they stopped it, I opened the door and then there was a place you walk out of to the level.
JEANETTE: On to a platform?
ANGUS: A platform on a stick like you know. So, ok, I had to go in and I had to straddle the hole with one leg here and one leg there. I took the chain of the plank where you walk, and I passed (it) out and dropped it down and then we got up. I think they knew where I was at, so they came down and got me.
Note : Angus advised me that the platform would be lifted up on its side and chained to the back of the cage to allow the ore to be hoisted up the shaft. When the men would be going up and down, the platform would be down.
JEANETTE: Now, the other two men, how did they make out, nothing happened to them?
ANGUS: No because they were on safety. One was on one end and the other was on the other end (of the shoot).
ANGUS: I don’t think they stayed.
JEANETTE: So, when that all happened you crawled out, but they were not where you were?
ANGUS: I don’t think they stayed. I think …
JEANETTE: Left after that?
ANGUS: Yeah. I was off for a while. I was all blood and back eyes. (Angus laughs)
JEANETTE: Is that when you went above ground?
ANGUS: I think I went back (underground).
ANGUS: There were two guys one fellow got killed up on the stoop where they were drilling, and the other fellow was on the ground on the same level and there was an old track going in that way so far. It wasn’t very far, and the wall was coming down like that (on an angle). When you were in there you were leaning against the wall with your back and I don’t know why they went in there unless they had orders – they had orders to go in I guess. And what he was doing was he was hitting the side of the wall with a bucket and a big slab came down and crushed him right there.
JEANETTE: What kind of a bucket?
ANGUS: It was run by air. And you could swing it. That’s what they were using to dump the…
JEANETTE: Ore
ANGUS: You’d drive into, lift up the bucket, back up, and dump it in.
JEANETTE: Was that a little machine?
ANGUS: Oh, yes. It was heavy.
JEANETTE: Do you remember what that man’s name was? There was a Bedard fellow who died there. A rock fell on top of him. That might have been him. Bessie was telling me that.
ANGUS: Could have been.
Working on the surface.
ANGUS: I was doing carpenter work with Roddie MacLeod from Lewis Cove Rd. I was with him first building more or less storage sheds and something like that. I really liked that. That was before I went down into the mine.
JEANETTE: Why did you change and go underground?
ANGUS: I was working for Roddie (MacLeod) for I don’t know how long then I had to find something else, so I went into the mine.
JEANETTE: Did you work there until it closed?
ANGUS: Yes, pretty well, I think I must have been there pretty well to the end.
Working on the Motor
JEANETTE: What would your job be called – the one you did in the mine, down underground?
ANGUS: The machine I had, you stood on the machine. There was a step there. And there was a hose hooked onto it - not to the step but to the machine. And you had two levers. This lever {to the right} dropped your bucket and you’d go into the pile and you’d raise it up . This handle here {to the left) - you’d pull the handle back and you’d back the machine then you'd drop it and do the same thing again. So, I was on that, I really liked it.
JEANETTE: How wide would the walls be there?
ANGUS: They’d be fairly wide.
JEANETTE: Wide as this room (10 feet)?
ANGUS: No, not that wide.
JEANETTE: How far would you go down? You were at 300 feet at one point. Would it go down to 700 feet?
ANGUS: No, I don’t think it was down 7, maybe 6 I know it was down to 5 but could be 7.
JEANETTE: But they didn’t have the tunnels that far down?
ANGUS: No, they didn’t, not below even 5. I don’t recall working with a machine to the ore they were drilling. There wasn’t enough ore there. They worked to 4 but the skip was so high at the 4 it might have been down here because they were spaced so far apart. It was good, but..
List of names of people
ANGUS: Stronach- I remember him.
JEANETTE: Angus Chisholm. Someone said he was a violin player.
ANGUS: Angus Chisolm was a violin player.
NOTE: We’re not sure if this is the same man.
JEANETTE: And he was also a boss at the mine?
ANGUS: He could have been.
JEANETTE: Michaelson?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Bunclark?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Now, the carpentry shop where you worked out of. Do you remember where that would be. Do you think it was past the mill?
ANGUS: Oh, yes it was past the conveyor. Not too far from the warehouse.
JEANETTE: Bushnick?
ANGUS: Yes, there was a Bushnick there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Jim Mitchel? He was a medic there.
ANGUS: Yes. He was the fellow when I got hurt. He lived around the lake there. He was the fellow who tended to me -to anybody who was hurt. You’d just call, and he’d come in right away.
JEANETTE: Was he trained in anything?
ANGUS: No. That’s just what he was doing first aid or whatever.
JEANETTE: Hughie MacDonald - did he do anything else but run the bus?
ANGUS: That’s more than I can tell you. I don’t think.
JEANETTE: Joe mason, did you know what he did?
ANGUS: He was an accountant, I think.
JEANETTE: Donald (Morrison) was telling me that S &M MacDonald Trucking -they are the ones who hauled the ore from Stirling to St Peter’s.
ANGUS: Right.
JEANETTE: Did you know anybody who drove those trucks?
ANGUS: He had a contract. I think he was the only one (to have a contract) as far as I know.
The Dry house
ANGUS: (Looking at photo #17) That was a dry house. It was up in the hill.
JEANETTE: That’s where that little shaft or whatever was. (Note Wendell Holmes told me, on my visit to him, that shaft was used when they first started at the mine before the main shaft was sunk).
JEANETTE: What did they do there?
ANGUS: The mine - there was like - You go down and maybe 20 minutes you would be wet. It was horrible really. And when it was cold, it would really get to you. That was the house. They had hangers all along and you’d hang your clothes to dry.
The Stores/garage
JEANETTE: Do you remember the stores?. Do you remember a meat market there?
ANGUS: I think there was a meat market there. And then there was Danny Shaw he had a place there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember my father’s garage (Strachan’s)? Did you ever go there for Gas?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: Do you know if there were two pumps?
ANGUS: No, I think there was just the one.
ANGUS: He had a good job, he kept busy there.
JEANETTE: He worked in the mine too. He had somebody working for him at the garage. He was one of the carpenters.
ANGUS: I’ll tell you whatever he did, he did it right. He was a good carpenter.
JEANETTE: Do you remember going into the cookhouse and having something to eat?
ANGUS: No, I don’t think. I remember the restaurant (Tom’s Tea Room –aka Chinese restaurant). I ate at the restaurant. He was pretty good.
JEANETTE: Did you ever go to the movies?
ANGUS: I don’t think, no.
Where other people lived
JEANETTE: There were people who built houses along the Stirling Rd. I don’t know how big they were. Do you remember Dogpatch?
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: We had a little log cabin halfway between Dogpatch and the crossroads. There was a bunch of us there. There was Lawrence Morrison and myself. There was a bunch of us. It was good. And we got the land from Bessie. She just said if you want to build a house just go ahead and build it. And that’s what we did.
ANGUS: It was on your right going to Stirling. It was just down off the road.
JEANETTE: I remember as kids, we would go down a steep bank and there were remains of a building there. That might have been it.
ANGUS: It wasn’t far off the road but there was a steep bank there.
JEANETTE: Who built it?
ANGUS: I think it was ourselves.
JEANETTE: What did you have for beds – bunks?
ANGUS: Bunks, yes. We were probably having something to eat there too you know.
JEANETTE: You’d have a little stove?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you remember when we got the phones in Framboise and Stirling. Was it in the 60’s?
ANGUS: It was in the 40’s I think.
JEANETTE: We got the electricity in the late 40’s but I don’t think we had the telephone then.
ANGUS: That’s right, yes.
JEANETTE: They didn’t have a telephone at the mine, so Jean Taylor had the telegraph at her place, and they moved her and telegraph and all (down to the mine). And she was set up in the main office (as per Dolena MacLeod MacLean’s interview).
ANGUS: I guess they got the power when they were building the mine there.
What stand’s out
JEANETTE: Was there anything that stood out in your mind about the mine?
ANGUS: It was a wet one.
JEANETTE: You’d have to wear oil clothes?
JEANETTE: Was there a place you could shower that was in the dry house?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you remember how much you made there.
ANGUS: I don’t know. I spent it as fast as I got it. Laughs.
ANGUS: Anyway, I went to Till Cove (NFL) after that.
JEANETTE: Yes, a lot of people did.
JEANETTE: I understand that you and Billy and John James worked at the mine.
ANGUS: Billy worked there, I don’t know about John James. Billy had a good memory. He could have told you a lot.
JEANETTE: What did Billy do there?
ANGUS: He was on the surface.
JEANETTE: Did he do carpentry work?
ANGUS: It could have been carpenter work. I did some too.
JEANETTE: You worked underground for a little while?
ANGUS: I was on the surface first and then I went underground.
JEANETTE: You (would have been) only a young fellow when you were working at the mine.
ANGUS: I think I started working at the mine right from the start with Roddie and them. I’m pretty sure. There might have been a lot of work just before that.
JEANETTE: So, you said the mine closed in 56.
ANGUS: 55, I think.
JEANETTE: So, it didn’t run that long.
The 20/30’s Mine
JEANETTE: Looking at picture of the mine (Photo #1 – This is the old mine that ran in the 20’s and 30’s. And you know where the Glory hole was?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: It was a little bit to the left of the Glory hole, wasn’t it?
ANGUS: Oh, Yes.
ANGUS: It was to the left (in the picture) and the Glory hole was down (to the right).
JEANETTE: That was quite the operation in the 30’s but you didn’t hear any stories about that, right -where the buildings went or the houses?
ANGUS: No. I looked at it and I knew it was different (from the layout of the 1950’s mine).
The mine owned homes
JEANETTE: (Talking about Angus and Alice’s home, sitting at their dining table). This is a big house. It’s one of the bigger houses.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: It looks a bit like the one down at Kenny Dan’s but this one is bigger right?
ANGUS: Yes, well of course the sun room is on there and a bedroom added on .
JEANETTE: But the front of the house is the same size as it was originally.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Down the mine road on the right side there were a lot of houses behind John G’s. This could have been one of the houses.
ANGUS: No. They were on the left
JEANETTE: OK. There were three big houses on the left.
ANGUS: The three houses were on the left. When you went down there, there were bunkhouses.
JEANETTE: (Showing the photo #2 and points to the long buildings on the left). These are the bunk houses, would you agree?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And that one there (3rd one in) would be the mess hall where they ate.
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: So, the house you got would be up on the hill somewhere?
ANGUS: The three of them were alongside each other (Angus points behind the bunkhouses).
JEANETTE: So, that would make sense because as you are going down the(mine) road (from the main Rd) , I don’t know if you know, there’s an internet tower on the left side of the road and I was told they were in that proximity.
JEANETTE: Were they all the same size?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And were they right in a row?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you know where the other houses went?
ANGUS: When the mine closed, the houses were for sale. Anyway, there were the three houses. When Danny and I got there the day before the opening - we went in there together to look at the houses and they were nice and all that so anyway we had left. Danny got one, I got one and Norman Alex he got one.
JEANETTE: The first house (Norman Alex’s).
ANGUS: And it was put out in Framboise by the store.
JEANETTE: Across from Dan Norman’s?
ANGUS: It would be down a little further on the other side of the road. That would be after you’d go around the turn and the house would be there.
ANGUS: Well that house, Danny and I were going to go out together in the morning. The guy wasn’t in the first day we were out, I don’t think. We were supposed to go back in the morning. We were going to leave early - 8 or 9 0’clock. He (Danny) was supposed to pick me up. We could have gone together. He wasn’t coming, wasn’t coming and I went. Anyway, we met at the gate and he said the house is rotten at the back end. That would be down by the bathroom there. So, he says, “So I didn’t bother with it”. He had a deposit on it.
JEANETTE: The right-hand side. There was one at the beginning of the road.
ANGUS: Yes. That was the manager’s house.
JEANETTE: Yes.
ANGUS: It’s in east Bay.
JEANETTE: Ah. That’s the one that is in East Bay at the Meadows.
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: So anyway, I went looking at the house (that Danny didn’t buy). The guy came with me and everything. Anyway, I told the guy I’d take this house - $400.00 - I only paid for it. It is a story and a half. There was nothing wrong with it. There was only a little (damage) – there was steam heat that was in it and the steam heat got close and got rot in it. I looked at it and I said I’d take it for 400 bucks.
JEANETTE: Was that the one you were originally going to buy?
ANGUS: Danny was going to take that one. The three of them were gone and I was going to have to take one of those that Dan Norman got there. You know, Dan Norman’s is still there in Framboise. So, I went down. Those houses were $1000.00.
JEANETTE: OK
ANGUS: So, when he (Danny) said that, I shifted over to the big one.
JEANETTE: So, you went back to the one of the three on the left-hand side -that Danny was going to buy but it was rotten. So, the manager gave you a deal and you fixed it up.
ANGUS: The house was there from the time the mine closed in 1955 to 1959. My house - I never moved it. All the other ones were all gone. So, mine was still there. There was nothing wrong with it. The only thing that was wrong with it that I didn’t notice when I looked inside (was) the big window was broken. The front window where that one is there (Angus points to the replacement window). So that’s the one I got. It had two side windows.
ANGUS: So, I told Dan Alex what I paid for it and I paid him, and I left it there until I got more money.
JEANETTE: So, you bought your house for $400. Did Danny Burns end up getting one of the (other houses)?
ANGUS: No.
JEANETTE: So, you got one house, Norman Alex got the other. And who had the third house?
ANGUS: I’ll tell you who got one of those houses, Dan Alex MacLeod, the Miller. He moved that into where his mother was at which Danny inherited.
JEANETTE: So, Norman Alex, he took that house down to Framboise, but it burnt down right?
ANGUS: Yes. It burnt
JEANETTE: Then he got another building from the mine afterwards. That’s there now across from Dan Norman’s, well actually down the road from Dan Norman’s, closer to the store. George Norman Alex (MacLeod’s) son, Alexander, told me that a house came from the mine. It was one of the manager’s and he said it was put down there in Framboise and then it burnt and then they got another building from the mine.
ANGUS: I think where the house burnt they might have put the other one right there.
Alice: A house similar to this, but smaller, the one MacVicar was in over there on the Sanfield/Intervale Road. Part of it burnt.
ANGUS: That was up on John G’s land. On the way down to the mine there was a road going up (pointing to the right). Big Dan Norman -
JEANETTE: Yes
ANGUS: His house was up there.
JEANETTE: So, Dan Norman’s (MacLeod) house came from the mine?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: And Kenny Dan (MacLeod) but I think someone said Boston Dan bought that house (Initially).
ANGUS: Ok, yes
JEANETTE: Boston Dan and Kenny Dan, I think they were brothers.
JEANETTE: So that (house) probably came from up on the hill behind john G’s
ANGUS: Oh yes, because any house that was there - there were three houses on the mine property - went on the other property outside the gate.
JEANETTE: So, your house was inside the mine?
ANGUS: Yes
The gate
JEANETTE: I’m not sure where the gate was.
ANGUS: It was, you know Shaw’s store and the restaurant - There was a building on the right-hand side before you turn into the gate, like a little bungalow (see photo #2).
JEANETTE: Oh yes.
JEANETTE: The gate was after the stores wasn’t it?
ANGUS: Yes
The Stirling Bus
JEANETTE: Do you remember the bus?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: Did you ever go on it?
ANGUS: I went to Sydney on it. (Laughs). My father used to go in on it. He used to get a kick out of the bus driver.
JEANETTE: So, your father got a kick out of the driver.
ANGUS: If you wanted something from Sydney, Hughie, he’d get it. He’d say, “How’s the red army today”. There was so many of us.
ANGUS: I think it was pretty regular.
JEANETTE: Every day, when the mine was running.
ANGUS: Maybe not.
JEANETTE: There was a song written about it- “The rattling Stirling bus”. Do you know who wrote it?
ANGUS: No.
Looking at pictures
JEANETTE: So, this (Photo # 34) is the conveyor belt here that would take the ore up to the mill.
ANGUS: The mine would have been down here. And they had a big conveyer going down here. into the (underground).
JEANETTE: Here’s the back side of it (Photo #35 ). You can’t see the building you are talking about but here is the conveyer belt and here is the mill here.
ANGUS: That’s the mill, yes. This is the underground here (pointing at the white building near the conveyor belt.
Deaths and injuries
ANGUS: That’s where the fellow from Gabarus got killed pointing at the top of the conveyor belt.
JEANETTE: Yes, his name was Howard burns, right - Dan Alex Burn’s son?
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: He got caught in a belt.
JEANETTE: Was that a conveyor belt?
ANGUS: Yes. I think he was a watchman, making sure everything was all right. I think he was stationed there on his shift. Whatever happened, something got caught. and he went to grab it or move his arm or by chance he got caught in it.
JEANETTE: And pulled him into?
ANGUS: The head pulley (roller). Where the belt was there (this would be turning), so the conveyer belt would move over that.
JEANETTE: So, he got caught in it
ANGUS: He got caught in it and he went right into the ore there.
ANGUS: There might have been an alarm on that. To get up there they had to walk all the way up the conveyor to get where he was at. He was dead when they got to him anyway.
JEANETTE: Do you know of anyone else who died in the mine? I heard there were two.
ANGUS: Two that I know of. There could be a possible three. I got hurt there. I got hurt there twice when I was underground.
JEANETTE: Did something fall on top of you?
ANGUS: Yes, a big slab overhead. I was on an electric motor towing the ore up. Two fellows from Inverness, they got on there. You went down and went in. There was a narrow tunnel/ drift and there wasn’t too much space between the wall and the cars. It was just narrow. Anyway, the first night everything went right. Went down the second night we went in there and the way the shoot was, it was in the wall and it came out, but It was hung from the ceiling and It came out over the track. Not quite over the track. There were two planks on steel that was coming down from the roof. There was one lower and there was one higher. So, you’d pull the low one out and I’d fill the car. So, the second night we were at the same thing. I told them, see one fellow had to be on one side and the other fellow on the other side to lift the plank up for the stuff to go into the car. So, when the car was full, you’d just dropped the plank, and everything was stopped. So, anyway, the next night, we were at the same shoot and everything. And of course, I told them about the lifting of this plank and not to stand in front and get up on the side.
JEANETTE: Yeah!
ANGUS: So, I had the motor out here.
JEANETTE: (to the left)
ANGUS: And this guy was out here. He wasn’t on the motor or anything and then the shoot plugged up. There was nothing coming so I had a long bar, so I went up and I said, “I have to go up here and I’m going to use the bar and try to get that going”. The plank, I think the top, I don’t’ know if it broke or it slid over it, but anyway, it let go and the roof let go. I was kind of aimed sideways and I told that guy not to go in there but to be at the edge of the plank and it landed right on top of the car. It slid down. I think it slid over the plank and then it rested right on top of the car and jammed in the wall. So, there I was. So, I got down anyway and I had to crawl on my hands and knees on the ground. Underneath the car because the rock was so high, and it was only narrow.
J: Wow
ANGUS: I was covered in blood. So, I got on the motor. The fellow noticed and he got on and the other fellow got on it and we went up with the ring. We were on the 300 and the first thing you do is pull the cord- one, two, three. Then you step back and wait a second or two then you do the rest of them.
JEANETTE: What was that for?
ANGUS: To take you up
JEANETTE: So, they’d know where you were?
ANGUS: And I got mixed up with all the …
JEANETTE: Commotion, yeah!
ANGUS: So anyways they were hoisting stuff up there, up and down, and dumping it into the shoot to go to the mill. So anyway, they kind of stopped everything but they came to figure there was a third level, so they let the thing down and when they stopped it, I opened the door and then there was a place you walk out of to the level.
JEANETTE: On to a platform?
ANGUS: A platform on a stick like you know. So, ok, I had to go in and I had to straddle the hole with one leg here and one leg there. I took the chain of the plank where you walk, and I passed (it) out and dropped it down and then we got up. I think they knew where I was at, so they came down and got me.
Note : Angus advised me that the platform would be lifted up on its side and chained to the back of the cage to allow the ore to be hoisted up the shaft. When the men would be going up and down, the platform would be down.
JEANETTE: Now, the other two men, how did they make out, nothing happened to them?
ANGUS: No because they were on safety. One was on one end and the other was on the other end (of the shoot).
ANGUS: I don’t think they stayed.
JEANETTE: So, when that all happened you crawled out, but they were not where you were?
ANGUS: I don’t think they stayed. I think …
JEANETTE: Left after that?
ANGUS: Yeah. I was off for a while. I was all blood and back eyes. (Angus laughs)
JEANETTE: Is that when you went above ground?
ANGUS: I think I went back (underground).
ANGUS: There were two guys one fellow got killed up on the stoop where they were drilling, and the other fellow was on the ground on the same level and there was an old track going in that way so far. It wasn’t very far, and the wall was coming down like that (on an angle). When you were in there you were leaning against the wall with your back and I don’t know why they went in there unless they had orders – they had orders to go in I guess. And what he was doing was he was hitting the side of the wall with a bucket and a big slab came down and crushed him right there.
JEANETTE: What kind of a bucket?
ANGUS: It was run by air. And you could swing it. That’s what they were using to dump the…
JEANETTE: Ore
ANGUS: You’d drive into, lift up the bucket, back up, and dump it in.
JEANETTE: Was that a little machine?
ANGUS: Oh, yes. It was heavy.
JEANETTE: Do you remember what that man’s name was? There was a Bedard fellow who died there. A rock fell on top of him. That might have been him. Bessie was telling me that.
ANGUS: Could have been.
Working on the surface.
ANGUS: I was doing carpenter work with Roddie MacLeod from Lewis Cove Rd. I was with him first building more or less storage sheds and something like that. I really liked that. That was before I went down into the mine.
JEANETTE: Why did you change and go underground?
ANGUS: I was working for Roddie (MacLeod) for I don’t know how long then I had to find something else, so I went into the mine.
JEANETTE: Did you work there until it closed?
ANGUS: Yes, pretty well, I think I must have been there pretty well to the end.
Working on the Motor
JEANETTE: What would your job be called – the one you did in the mine, down underground?
ANGUS: The machine I had, you stood on the machine. There was a step there. And there was a hose hooked onto it - not to the step but to the machine. And you had two levers. This lever {to the right} dropped your bucket and you’d go into the pile and you’d raise it up . This handle here {to the left) - you’d pull the handle back and you’d back the machine then you'd drop it and do the same thing again. So, I was on that, I really liked it.
JEANETTE: How wide would the walls be there?
ANGUS: They’d be fairly wide.
JEANETTE: Wide as this room (10 feet)?
ANGUS: No, not that wide.
JEANETTE: How far would you go down? You were at 300 feet at one point. Would it go down to 700 feet?
ANGUS: No, I don’t think it was down 7, maybe 6 I know it was down to 5 but could be 7.
JEANETTE: But they didn’t have the tunnels that far down?
ANGUS: No, they didn’t, not below even 5. I don’t recall working with a machine to the ore they were drilling. There wasn’t enough ore there. They worked to 4 but the skip was so high at the 4 it might have been down here because they were spaced so far apart. It was good, but..
List of names of people
ANGUS: Stronach- I remember him.
JEANETTE: Angus Chisholm. Someone said he was a violin player.
ANGUS: Angus Chisolm was a violin player.
NOTE: We’re not sure if this is the same man.
JEANETTE: And he was also a boss at the mine?
ANGUS: He could have been.
JEANETTE: Michaelson?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Bunclark?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Now, the carpentry shop where you worked out of. Do you remember where that would be. Do you think it was past the mill?
ANGUS: Oh, yes it was past the conveyor. Not too far from the warehouse.
JEANETTE: Bushnick?
ANGUS: Yes, there was a Bushnick there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember Jim Mitchel? He was a medic there.
ANGUS: Yes. He was the fellow when I got hurt. He lived around the lake there. He was the fellow who tended to me -to anybody who was hurt. You’d just call, and he’d come in right away.
JEANETTE: Was he trained in anything?
ANGUS: No. That’s just what he was doing first aid or whatever.
JEANETTE: Hughie MacDonald - did he do anything else but run the bus?
ANGUS: That’s more than I can tell you. I don’t think.
JEANETTE: Joe mason, did you know what he did?
ANGUS: He was an accountant, I think.
JEANETTE: Donald (Morrison) was telling me that S &M MacDonald Trucking -they are the ones who hauled the ore from Stirling to St Peter’s.
ANGUS: Right.
JEANETTE: Did you know anybody who drove those trucks?
ANGUS: He had a contract. I think he was the only one (to have a contract) as far as I know.
The Dry house
ANGUS: (Looking at photo #17) That was a dry house. It was up in the hill.
JEANETTE: That’s where that little shaft or whatever was. (Note Wendell Holmes told me, on my visit to him, that shaft was used when they first started at the mine before the main shaft was sunk).
JEANETTE: What did they do there?
ANGUS: The mine - there was like - You go down and maybe 20 minutes you would be wet. It was horrible really. And when it was cold, it would really get to you. That was the house. They had hangers all along and you’d hang your clothes to dry.
The Stores/garage
JEANETTE: Do you remember the stores?. Do you remember a meat market there?
ANGUS: I think there was a meat market there. And then there was Danny Shaw he had a place there.
JEANETTE: Do you remember my father’s garage (Strachan’s)? Did you ever go there for Gas?
ANGUS: Yes.
JEANETTE: Do you know if there were two pumps?
ANGUS: No, I think there was just the one.
ANGUS: He had a good job, he kept busy there.
JEANETTE: He worked in the mine too. He had somebody working for him at the garage. He was one of the carpenters.
ANGUS: I’ll tell you whatever he did, he did it right. He was a good carpenter.
JEANETTE: Do you remember going into the cookhouse and having something to eat?
ANGUS: No, I don’t think. I remember the restaurant (Tom’s Tea Room –aka Chinese restaurant). I ate at the restaurant. He was pretty good.
JEANETTE: Did you ever go to the movies?
ANGUS: I don’t think, no.
Where other people lived
JEANETTE: There were people who built houses along the Stirling Rd. I don’t know how big they were. Do you remember Dogpatch?
ANGUS: Yes
ANGUS: We had a little log cabin halfway between Dogpatch and the crossroads. There was a bunch of us there. There was Lawrence Morrison and myself. There was a bunch of us. It was good. And we got the land from Bessie. She just said if you want to build a house just go ahead and build it. And that’s what we did.
ANGUS: It was on your right going to Stirling. It was just down off the road.
JEANETTE: I remember as kids, we would go down a steep bank and there were remains of a building there. That might have been it.
ANGUS: It wasn’t far off the road but there was a steep bank there.
JEANETTE: Who built it?
ANGUS: I think it was ourselves.
JEANETTE: What did you have for beds – bunks?
ANGUS: Bunks, yes. We were probably having something to eat there too you know.
JEANETTE: You’d have a little stove?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you remember when we got the phones in Framboise and Stirling. Was it in the 60’s?
ANGUS: It was in the 40’s I think.
JEANETTE: We got the electricity in the late 40’s but I don’t think we had the telephone then.
ANGUS: That’s right, yes.
JEANETTE: They didn’t have a telephone at the mine, so Jean Taylor had the telegraph at her place, and they moved her and telegraph and all (down to the mine). And she was set up in the main office (as per Dolena MacLeod MacLean’s interview).
ANGUS: I guess they got the power when they were building the mine there.
What stand’s out
JEANETTE: Was there anything that stood out in your mind about the mine?
ANGUS: It was a wet one.
JEANETTE: You’d have to wear oil clothes?
JEANETTE: Was there a place you could shower that was in the dry house?
ANGUS: Yes
JEANETTE: Do you remember how much you made there.
ANGUS: I don’t know. I spent it as fast as I got it. Laughs.
ANGUS: Anyway, I went to Till Cove (NFL) after that.
JEANETTE: Yes, a lot of people did.