Shoes owned by Soutter Strachan, which Donald says were made by "the Dutchman" who lived in Stirling (1950's).
Interview with Donald Strachan August 6, 2018 Formerly of Framboise, NS re the Stirling Mine
The Stores
Jeanette: We were talking about the Stirling mine and I am going to ask you about some of the stores that were there.
Donald: I think the most significant one was the Chinese restaurant. I remember being in there with my dad and having a Chinese meal. I would have been approximately 12 years old at that time, I guess. It’s interesting because I always loved Chinese food ever since (laugh).
Jeanette: What was the name of the restaurant. Was it “Tom’s Tea Room”?
Donald: Yes, I believe it was. They had little sit-down booths like they do nowadays in restaurants. They’d have about 6 booths.
Jeanette: Would they have had a table or a counter where they would sit down?
Donald: There was a counter now that I think of it. It wasn’t like a bar or anything, but you could sit down at this counter and order your food.
Jeanette: Was there a slot machine?
Donald: I think there was a slot machine and it took nickels. I don’t think I played the slot machine. I was only 12 years old at the time.
Jeanette: Where was it located?
Donald: It was right where you come in the front door. It was just to the left.
Jeanette: When you’d be going down the road to the mine, what side of the road was that?
Donald: That would be on the right hand side of the road. There were a number of other shops along that strip. I’d say this would be halfway down from the corner where you would turn down into the mine toward where the mine buildings started. There were probably four or five establishments there. One was Danny Shaw from Loch Lomond. He had a store. I believe that was next to the Chinese restaurant. I don’t remember too much about that particular store. Spinner’s store was up at the corner (on the main road). It was a clothing store. That was a building that was owned by John G MacLeod. He had a general store earlier on (which operated when the mine was open in the 30’s). Spinner leased it and Diddy (Marjory MacLeod) was the clerk in the store. I can’t think of any other stores down on that strip. Yes, it was a busy spot.
Jeanette: So what about Morrison’s store?
Donald: Morrison’s store was right on the corner. It was a general store, on the left-hand side (of the main road) when you are approaching Stirling coming from Framboise. I used to raise hens. I would go up to St Peters to the train and pick up a box of chicks. I’d make up a pen. I’d raise them up until Christmas. I'd dress them up. Mom would always help me. I’d have about 20 or so. I used to get $5 each at Morrison’s store, that was a lot for a chicken.
Donald: And my dad, (Soutter Strachan), had the service station opposite the general store. The company at the time that he dealt with was Petrafina. First it was Superline then Petrafina. It changed hands while we were there. I remember changing the signs.
Jeanette: Would that sign be just before the garage? There are still a few metal posts in the ground there where a sign may have been placed?
Donald: That would be it then. The garage was a very busy spot - there, particularly on Friday evenings when the miners got off shift. They’d be heading out – to other places. I think a lot of them were from L’Ardoise. Everyone would be pulling into the service station my dad ran, gassing up, but it was so busy that it was hard to keep track of everybody. Part of my job was to stand by the pumps. When somebody filled up, I would write down how much they took and license number. I had a book and I’d write all this down and give it to my dad and he’d follow up on it. Most of these guys would return on Monday and come back up to the gas station and pay the bill.
My uncle George (Strachan) would always be around the garage at that busy time on Friday to, more or less, keep an eye on things as the garage itself was kind of busy. My father would be busy working on cars. George would be standing outside making sure I did my job taking down the (license plate) numbers.
Jeanette: Who worked the cash register? Who was doing that?
Donald: I don’t know. I think it might have been my uncle George on Fridays and my dad during the week. It was a busy time for him because he worked down at the mine. He was the Carpenter Shop’s foreman, so he’d have to come up after work and run the gas station. Editor's note: Duncan MacLeod told me that he worked at the garage for approximately a year -JS.
Jeanette: Did he do mechanical work too?
Donald: There was a mechanic, Edwin Severance.
Jeanette: Was he a mechanic by trade?
Donald: I think so. He was an interesting guy. He had difficulty walking. He would roll around the service station floor on his cart. There was a pit down below. All service stations at that time would have a pit down below the floor and you’d bring your car in and someone would get in the pit. He was often on the main floor but, come to think of it, he would be down in the pit as well. He’d put his hands on the sides and almost bounce himself down and there was some kind of a table down there or stand and he’d get himself on top of that and work on cars.
Donald: As far as (other) businesses - there was an old Dutchman who sold wooden shoes.
Jeanette: Our Dad had a pair of them. Is this where he got them?!
Donald: Yes, the family lived not too far from the service station back out toward Framboise right opposite where Dan Alex had the mill there (Editor's note: This was the Stirling school when the Mine ran in the 30s and 50s).
Jeanette: So, on the opposite side of the road to the service station....
Donald: The Dutch family who made the wooden shoes lived there. (Editor's note: Walter Martell , Grand Greve, identified the family name as Devriendt. He was friends with the three sons.)
Jeanette: Who bought them?
Donald: Oh, everybody. I think we used to clomp around on them.
Jeanette: We did when we were kids. They are still around. See Pic above
Jeanette: So when the mine shut down those stores would have closed?
Donald: Yes, closed down, basically walked away.
Jeanette: The garage that dad had, was sold to the Dept of Highways. Irene's parents had a convenience store. Donald Morrison said it was on the main road on the left-hand side before you got to the mine road.
Donald: I don't remember that.
Jeanette: I think it was a convenience store. Editor's Note: This was Morrison's store and after the mine closed the Sampson family moved into the store and had a small store there (As per Bessie Morrison's and Irene Sampson Carter's interviews).
Recreation
Jeanette: There was a movie theatre, right?
Donald: Yes. Taking in a movie on Saturday night was a big event for us kids going out to Stirling. They had a screen set up in one of the bunkhouses and we’d sit on all the chairs or the benches that were there. These chairs were arranged in rows. I’d be sitting there and seeing the rows of people ahead.
Jeanette: Would there be many people who would go?
Donald: Yes, yes.
Jeanette: Would they have it every night or just on the weekend.
Donald: On Saturday we would go. I remember one particular movie I seen there “Singing in the rain” with Gene Kelly and some girl (Lena Lamont). That was a big event. Editor's Note -This film was released April 11, 1952).
Jeanette: And Dan Norman’s big shed, Elaine said that that was a movie theatre.
Donald: I don’t know, as far as I was concerned it (the movie theatre) was (in) the bunk house.
Jeanette: You were telling me before that they had a recreation area up behind where the glory hole is. Do you remember that? They had a big baseball field.
Donald: Yes, they had kind of a playing field out there. On certain weekends like July 1st September 1st -special weekends, they’d have a big tarpaulin up there, little canteens set up and games went on.
Donald: At MacLean’s lake they had a diving platform they floated out on the lake. It was anchored down, and people would swim out there and get on this diving board.
Core buildings/bunkhouses/the Mill
Jeanette: Do you remember any other buildings that were there besides the stores and the bunkhouses?
Donald: They had big core buildings where they stored all the cores. There were some company houses up on the hill. They were on the right-hand side of the street behind John G’s.
Jeanette: There were some houses on the left-hand side too.
Donald: I don’t know, I don’t recall that. That’s where the bunkhouses were. There were two large bunkhouses.
Where People stayed
Jeanette: Where would all the people stay during the week?
Donald: A lot of the people that worked there were single young guys, like Dad when he went out to Quebec (to the mine).
Jeanette: They would stay in the bunkhouse?
Donald: Yes. There were Newfoundlander's there too.
Jeanette: They’d stay there all the time then?
Donald: Yes, they’d go out occasionally. Some of workers would come with their families and build a little spot. Others were single and they would stay in the bunkhouse.
Jeanette: They must have been really big as there were over 300 people there at one time.
Donald: Oh yes, they were large, large buildings. I don’t remember the details of the building, but they were big. I think there were rooms off both sides and there would be a number of bunks in there.
Jeanette: There were families that moved to the area, too.
Donald: (They lived in) some of these houses up on the hill there (on the right behind John G’s).
Jeanette: They were the bosses houses, weren’t they?
Donald: Those were primarily management people. Others who lived year-round would be all along the roads coming into Stirling.
Jeanette: Around the lake, and Dogpatch.
Donald: Aunt Wilma (Strachan) bought a building (that came from Dogpatch)- that little bungalow.
How the mine got started
Jeanette: So, you were going to tell me how the mine got started again.
Donald: I met a chap in Ontario. He was an Engineer who went to the same school as I did. He was a Metallurgical Engineer who would be a guy who would be involved in a mill, for instance. He said his father was the President of Mindamar Metals which was the current owner of that mine site at that time. His last name was McCrea. I don’t know his first name. His company had bought the old mining rights which were owned by British Metals. And in the early 1940’s during the war, they bought permits- a license to run the mine. The mine had run in the 30’s by the British Metals Corporation. This McCrea, the president of Mindamar, bought the rights in the early 40’s and at that time the mine was not operating. It was just vacant. Everything had been dismantled- the whole thing. But this company, Mindamar, negotiated a contract with the Government to supply base metals for the war effort because in 43 it was in the midst of the war. They had a 10-year contract to supply those base metals. Lead copper and zinc. They eventually got around to Stirling. They had other mine companies in Canada. They finally said, “hey let’s go back to that Stirling property”. So, in 1950, I guess it was, they went back into Stirling. They produced a lot of concentrate over there.
Jeanette: The war would have been over by then.
Donald: The war was over, but they still had a 10-year contract. The government was committed to take a certain quantity of concentrate at a certain price for 10 years. So, they just kept operating the mine and the government took the product and resold it or whatever. But that came to an end in 1953 because that was 43-53.
Jeanette: Did they get other contracts?
Donald: Certainly not as lucrative as they had with the government.
Jeanette: They spent a lot of money building the buildings.
Donald: They spent a lot of money, but I presume they were profitable otherwise they would have just shut her down anytime. They would have, through the late 40’s, done a lot of drilling. I think they would have drilled this property down here (Framboise Intervale).
Jeanette: There was a big hole down there by the juniper tree. Editor's Note: Click here for more detail - Note from Bailey McCrea to Donald Strachan
Donald: Anyway, just following up on that story about McCrea who was the president, my buddy I had in Ontario, the Engineer, said his father would go down to Stirling definitely once a year in the summertime to do a check on the mine, to see the senior guys - the Managers there. It turns out one of his main reason for coming down was to fish trout. He was a real fisherman. The story from my friend was that his father got to know a gentleman who worked at the mine, who knew all the brooks and all the fishing holes around the area and that this McCrea, the President, would go with this gentleman and would go all around the brooks. And I remember my father saying that he used to show around the guy from the mines, a senior guy, that would come once a year. They used to call him the rock doctor. Which is another term for a geologist which this guy was. So, it is very likely that our dad was the guy that used to take this guy around fishing. Editor's Note: See Dolena MacLean’s interview re the Assayer boss Max MacLeod telling stories about Soutter Strachan taking him through the woods. It is very likely then that Soutter was the man who took Mr. McCrea on these fishing trips.
Milling
Donald: There was another story my friend that was telling me about the milling process. In those days they were not the state of the art as they are now plus the quality of the ore, certain chemicals that was in the ore itself made it very difficult to separate out the base metals. Plus, they took some gold out 0.1% gold. There was silver too, very little. So, they lost a lot of the value out through the tailings because they couldn’t recover- with the quality of the milling process they had at the time. Editor's Note: For more detail click here - Note from Bailey McCrea to Donald Strachan
Jeanette: One guy wanted to do that.
Donald: Go back into the tailings?
Jeanette: Yes
Donald: I’ll send the 10-page report that goes into great detail about the milling operation and all the problems they had. I expect that was part of the reason they bailed out because it was inefficient. And the quality of the concentrate wasn’t what it should be, so the market wasn’t available for it.
Jeanette: So were all the mining places like that – where it wasn’t very efficient?
Donald: No, it was more specific to Stirling. The quality of the ore complicated things. Did you ever see those little steel balls
Jeanette: What are they?
Donald: The mill is called a ball mill. What it is, is a big container with all these steel balls in it. That’s why they call it a ball mill. It would go around like this and they would crush the ore very fine. After it comes off the conveyor belt it goes into a crusher system and then down to the ball mill and then they put certain chemicals in (to separate the minerals).
Donald: The mill was a big large complex. There was a big conveyor system that took the ore from the main mine up on the hill. It was processed there and trucked away to St Peter’s. I’m sure it must have been sent out by rail after that. I think it was by rail. Editor's Note: see Murdock Morrison's interview re the ore being shipped out by train from St Peter's
Jeanette: There was a railroad station up in St Peter’s. And Murdock Morrison, do you know if he worked in St Peter’s where they were loading and unloading?
Donald: I don’t know. I know the trucks drove back and forth over the barren road steady.
The Glory Hole
Jeanette: What was the Glory Hole?
Donald: It was part of the old drift over that way and I guess they (the walls) let go and the whole thing collapsed down. I don’t think it’s all the deep.
Jeanette: On the right-hand side (going down the mine road) is that where the shafts were?
Donald: Well there was a big tall head frame- they called it - where the hoist was.
Jeanette: You were telling me that they diverted water from MacLean’s lake.
Donald: Yes, well there’s a natural stream that runs through the mine property and I guess the original stream would have been right where the glory hole is. I’m not sure if that was the 30’s operation of the mine or the 50’s but they had to control that water that was running down through that mine site. It was flooding the glory hole which was exposing it all the way down the various drifts that they were now producing. So, they had to stop that water so what they did was - about a half a kilometer back of the mine site they dammed off that creek and they diverted it to the west into the other river that flows into MacLean’s lake. So, they completely diverted it.
Water Supply
But when they did that (the diversion), they put a large pipe with a 12-inch diameter in the ground before they built the dam. They had a big valve on the end so they could run pipe down to the mine into various buildings where they used water. I’m not sure if there were wells on that site or not. I don’t think the brook would have been the main source (of water).
Jeanette: Didn’t they get water from the Stirling lake? There was a pump house there.
Donald: Yes there was a pumphouse there too, yes.
Jeanette: So they pumped water from there?
Donald: That would be another source, of water.
Jeanette: I remember when we were kids there was a dam there just behind the pumphouse.
Donald: Stirling Lake? There’s a creek that goes down by the four corners (Barkers corner), just before the Morrison's (family). That creek comes out of the Stirling Lake.
Jeanette: They must have been damming it then.
Donald: Yes, probably it brought the lake up higher.
The Stirling Bus
Jeanette: Did you ever take the bus to Sydney, the King’s bus.
Donald: I don’t remember it. I just heard about it.
The Catholic Church
Jeanette: Do you remember the Catholic church.
Donald: No just second hand. They used to have a boy scout troop out there. I was never involved with the Cub Scouts in Stirling.
Jeanette: Who were the Boy Scouts.
Donald: Leo Sampson (Sampsonville). He was a Scout or a Cub. I don’t know who the Scout Leader was.
People who worked at Stirling Mine
Jeanette: Do you remember some people who worked there?
Donald: John James (MacLeod) and his brother Angus (MacLeod) worked there. George Angus (Strachan) I don't know. Ramsay and Charlie MacLeod worked in the mines.
Jeanette: Did they work in Stirling?
Donald: They worked there. Kenny Angus Morrison used to walk across the back lands through a short cut to go to work. George (Morrison) used to walk through there to get to school. There was a two-room school house there.
Donald: Malcolm Dan worked at the Carpenter’s Shop. He was one of the carpenters. Dad worked there too. He was the foreman.
Jeanette: So what did these guys do, the carpenters?
Donald: Made ladders mostly (after the buildings were completed).
Jeanette: For the shafts?
Drifts
Donald: So, down there they had drifts. They would have to get at them to drill and stuff like that.
Jeanette: So what are drifts?
Donald: Drifts are just a horizontal tunnel. They’d blast into these drifts and then people would cut pit props and you’d take them out (to the mine) and they would take them in (underground) and put some type of beam across the top. It didn’t seem like much support to me. that supported the drifts.
Jeanette: So, the carpenters wouldn’t have anything to do with that?
Donald: I think they would go down. They would have to build scaffolds. I don’t know - another term is a stoop. When you have a drift like this and you find a very rich body, you start digging it out and you end up with a very big cavern so you can build a scaffold down there. The carpenters probably did that.
Jeanette: Then you’d have to put something up there for support?
Donald: Yes, that or drill it from the platform. That’s what they would do. They would put the scaffolding up and put a walking platform on it. They’d drill up into the ceiling. They’d load it up and then they’d come down and take all the scaffolding down and then they’d blow it (dynamite) and all the stuff would fall down onto the floor. And then they’d muck it all back. This would be at the end of the drift. The shaft would be way over here so the cars would come in (by way of) the railway system and load it all on the train and take it to the shaft and then bring it up to the surface. Once they got that ore cleaned, they may want to take another go at it. And they’d scaffold the whole thing up an extra story this time. While there, they would drill up into the ceiling and blow it all down.
Jeanette: They were quite deep under ground then?
Donald: I don’t know what the elevation would be - 200 -300 feet.
Jeanette: So they’d still be there then, or would they (the drifts) be collapsed.
Donald: They’d still be there, just full of water. When dad was out in Quebec there- he had that fall. That’s what he was doing, building those scaffolds. That’s where he fell down. I don’t think dad, as the Foreman (in Stirling), went down under ground. There would be approximately a dozen guys in the carpentry shop.
Jeanette: There was a man from L’Ardoise. His name was Mombourquette and he worked with our father and he was telling me, several years ago, that they had a lot of fun. They would always be fooling around. One time they put nails in the drywall compound and when dad went to plaster the walls, all these nails were stuck on the wall. There was a lot of carrying on, I guess.
Dismantling -after the mine closed
Donald: There was a big dismantling project. Our father was a carpenter of course. He did a lot of work. He would have been employed for another year at least.
Jeanette: Taking things down?
Donald: All the flashing on the buildings were all done with lead. Do you remember the piles over (at the old house)? He got all the lead off all these buildings. It was worth a bit of money. He was authorized to take it.
Jeanette: And then he was able to sell that.
Donald: Yes, sold it later.
Jeanette: There was a lot of wood off (the buildings). What happened to all that stuff?
Donald: Yes, well, I don't know. I guess people bought it. Or just carted it away. I don't think much was bought. They just took it away. They moved all those houses; the company houses that were all around (the mine site).
Donald: After the mine closed, I would go out to the garage after school or in the summer. I’d get out there at noon and I would dread going out there because as soon as I came in sight of the garage, there would be a pile of used lumber outside at the side of the garage where dad would have reclaimed it from the mine. My job was to back out all the nails. I just hated doing that.
The Stores
Jeanette: We were talking about the Stirling mine and I am going to ask you about some of the stores that were there.
Donald: I think the most significant one was the Chinese restaurant. I remember being in there with my dad and having a Chinese meal. I would have been approximately 12 years old at that time, I guess. It’s interesting because I always loved Chinese food ever since (laugh).
Jeanette: What was the name of the restaurant. Was it “Tom’s Tea Room”?
Donald: Yes, I believe it was. They had little sit-down booths like they do nowadays in restaurants. They’d have about 6 booths.
Jeanette: Would they have had a table or a counter where they would sit down?
Donald: There was a counter now that I think of it. It wasn’t like a bar or anything, but you could sit down at this counter and order your food.
Jeanette: Was there a slot machine?
Donald: I think there was a slot machine and it took nickels. I don’t think I played the slot machine. I was only 12 years old at the time.
Jeanette: Where was it located?
Donald: It was right where you come in the front door. It was just to the left.
Jeanette: When you’d be going down the road to the mine, what side of the road was that?
Donald: That would be on the right hand side of the road. There were a number of other shops along that strip. I’d say this would be halfway down from the corner where you would turn down into the mine toward where the mine buildings started. There were probably four or five establishments there. One was Danny Shaw from Loch Lomond. He had a store. I believe that was next to the Chinese restaurant. I don’t remember too much about that particular store. Spinner’s store was up at the corner (on the main road). It was a clothing store. That was a building that was owned by John G MacLeod. He had a general store earlier on (which operated when the mine was open in the 30’s). Spinner leased it and Diddy (Marjory MacLeod) was the clerk in the store. I can’t think of any other stores down on that strip. Yes, it was a busy spot.
Jeanette: So what about Morrison’s store?
Donald: Morrison’s store was right on the corner. It was a general store, on the left-hand side (of the main road) when you are approaching Stirling coming from Framboise. I used to raise hens. I would go up to St Peters to the train and pick up a box of chicks. I’d make up a pen. I’d raise them up until Christmas. I'd dress them up. Mom would always help me. I’d have about 20 or so. I used to get $5 each at Morrison’s store, that was a lot for a chicken.
Donald: And my dad, (Soutter Strachan), had the service station opposite the general store. The company at the time that he dealt with was Petrafina. First it was Superline then Petrafina. It changed hands while we were there. I remember changing the signs.
Jeanette: Would that sign be just before the garage? There are still a few metal posts in the ground there where a sign may have been placed?
Donald: That would be it then. The garage was a very busy spot - there, particularly on Friday evenings when the miners got off shift. They’d be heading out – to other places. I think a lot of them were from L’Ardoise. Everyone would be pulling into the service station my dad ran, gassing up, but it was so busy that it was hard to keep track of everybody. Part of my job was to stand by the pumps. When somebody filled up, I would write down how much they took and license number. I had a book and I’d write all this down and give it to my dad and he’d follow up on it. Most of these guys would return on Monday and come back up to the gas station and pay the bill.
My uncle George (Strachan) would always be around the garage at that busy time on Friday to, more or less, keep an eye on things as the garage itself was kind of busy. My father would be busy working on cars. George would be standing outside making sure I did my job taking down the (license plate) numbers.
Jeanette: Who worked the cash register? Who was doing that?
Donald: I don’t know. I think it might have been my uncle George on Fridays and my dad during the week. It was a busy time for him because he worked down at the mine. He was the Carpenter Shop’s foreman, so he’d have to come up after work and run the gas station. Editor's note: Duncan MacLeod told me that he worked at the garage for approximately a year -JS.
Jeanette: Did he do mechanical work too?
Donald: There was a mechanic, Edwin Severance.
Jeanette: Was he a mechanic by trade?
Donald: I think so. He was an interesting guy. He had difficulty walking. He would roll around the service station floor on his cart. There was a pit down below. All service stations at that time would have a pit down below the floor and you’d bring your car in and someone would get in the pit. He was often on the main floor but, come to think of it, he would be down in the pit as well. He’d put his hands on the sides and almost bounce himself down and there was some kind of a table down there or stand and he’d get himself on top of that and work on cars.
Donald: As far as (other) businesses - there was an old Dutchman who sold wooden shoes.
Jeanette: Our Dad had a pair of them. Is this where he got them?!
Donald: Yes, the family lived not too far from the service station back out toward Framboise right opposite where Dan Alex had the mill there (Editor's note: This was the Stirling school when the Mine ran in the 30s and 50s).
Jeanette: So, on the opposite side of the road to the service station....
Donald: The Dutch family who made the wooden shoes lived there. (Editor's note: Walter Martell , Grand Greve, identified the family name as Devriendt. He was friends with the three sons.)
Jeanette: Who bought them?
Donald: Oh, everybody. I think we used to clomp around on them.
Jeanette: We did when we were kids. They are still around. See Pic above
Jeanette: So when the mine shut down those stores would have closed?
Donald: Yes, closed down, basically walked away.
Jeanette: The garage that dad had, was sold to the Dept of Highways. Irene's parents had a convenience store. Donald Morrison said it was on the main road on the left-hand side before you got to the mine road.
Donald: I don't remember that.
Jeanette: I think it was a convenience store. Editor's Note: This was Morrison's store and after the mine closed the Sampson family moved into the store and had a small store there (As per Bessie Morrison's and Irene Sampson Carter's interviews).
Recreation
Jeanette: There was a movie theatre, right?
Donald: Yes. Taking in a movie on Saturday night was a big event for us kids going out to Stirling. They had a screen set up in one of the bunkhouses and we’d sit on all the chairs or the benches that were there. These chairs were arranged in rows. I’d be sitting there and seeing the rows of people ahead.
Jeanette: Would there be many people who would go?
Donald: Yes, yes.
Jeanette: Would they have it every night or just on the weekend.
Donald: On Saturday we would go. I remember one particular movie I seen there “Singing in the rain” with Gene Kelly and some girl (Lena Lamont). That was a big event. Editor's Note -This film was released April 11, 1952).
Jeanette: And Dan Norman’s big shed, Elaine said that that was a movie theatre.
Donald: I don’t know, as far as I was concerned it (the movie theatre) was (in) the bunk house.
Jeanette: You were telling me before that they had a recreation area up behind where the glory hole is. Do you remember that? They had a big baseball field.
Donald: Yes, they had kind of a playing field out there. On certain weekends like July 1st September 1st -special weekends, they’d have a big tarpaulin up there, little canteens set up and games went on.
Donald: At MacLean’s lake they had a diving platform they floated out on the lake. It was anchored down, and people would swim out there and get on this diving board.
Core buildings/bunkhouses/the Mill
Jeanette: Do you remember any other buildings that were there besides the stores and the bunkhouses?
Donald: They had big core buildings where they stored all the cores. There were some company houses up on the hill. They were on the right-hand side of the street behind John G’s.
Jeanette: There were some houses on the left-hand side too.
Donald: I don’t know, I don’t recall that. That’s where the bunkhouses were. There were two large bunkhouses.
Where People stayed
Jeanette: Where would all the people stay during the week?
Donald: A lot of the people that worked there were single young guys, like Dad when he went out to Quebec (to the mine).
Jeanette: They would stay in the bunkhouse?
Donald: Yes. There were Newfoundlander's there too.
Jeanette: They’d stay there all the time then?
Donald: Yes, they’d go out occasionally. Some of workers would come with their families and build a little spot. Others were single and they would stay in the bunkhouse.
Jeanette: They must have been really big as there were over 300 people there at one time.
Donald: Oh yes, they were large, large buildings. I don’t remember the details of the building, but they were big. I think there were rooms off both sides and there would be a number of bunks in there.
Jeanette: There were families that moved to the area, too.
Donald: (They lived in) some of these houses up on the hill there (on the right behind John G’s).
Jeanette: They were the bosses houses, weren’t they?
Donald: Those were primarily management people. Others who lived year-round would be all along the roads coming into Stirling.
Jeanette: Around the lake, and Dogpatch.
Donald: Aunt Wilma (Strachan) bought a building (that came from Dogpatch)- that little bungalow.
How the mine got started
Jeanette: So, you were going to tell me how the mine got started again.
Donald: I met a chap in Ontario. He was an Engineer who went to the same school as I did. He was a Metallurgical Engineer who would be a guy who would be involved in a mill, for instance. He said his father was the President of Mindamar Metals which was the current owner of that mine site at that time. His last name was McCrea. I don’t know his first name. His company had bought the old mining rights which were owned by British Metals. And in the early 1940’s during the war, they bought permits- a license to run the mine. The mine had run in the 30’s by the British Metals Corporation. This McCrea, the president of Mindamar, bought the rights in the early 40’s and at that time the mine was not operating. It was just vacant. Everything had been dismantled- the whole thing. But this company, Mindamar, negotiated a contract with the Government to supply base metals for the war effort because in 43 it was in the midst of the war. They had a 10-year contract to supply those base metals. Lead copper and zinc. They eventually got around to Stirling. They had other mine companies in Canada. They finally said, “hey let’s go back to that Stirling property”. So, in 1950, I guess it was, they went back into Stirling. They produced a lot of concentrate over there.
Jeanette: The war would have been over by then.
Donald: The war was over, but they still had a 10-year contract. The government was committed to take a certain quantity of concentrate at a certain price for 10 years. So, they just kept operating the mine and the government took the product and resold it or whatever. But that came to an end in 1953 because that was 43-53.
Jeanette: Did they get other contracts?
Donald: Certainly not as lucrative as they had with the government.
Jeanette: They spent a lot of money building the buildings.
Donald: They spent a lot of money, but I presume they were profitable otherwise they would have just shut her down anytime. They would have, through the late 40’s, done a lot of drilling. I think they would have drilled this property down here (Framboise Intervale).
Jeanette: There was a big hole down there by the juniper tree. Editor's Note: Click here for more detail - Note from Bailey McCrea to Donald Strachan
Donald: Anyway, just following up on that story about McCrea who was the president, my buddy I had in Ontario, the Engineer, said his father would go down to Stirling definitely once a year in the summertime to do a check on the mine, to see the senior guys - the Managers there. It turns out one of his main reason for coming down was to fish trout. He was a real fisherman. The story from my friend was that his father got to know a gentleman who worked at the mine, who knew all the brooks and all the fishing holes around the area and that this McCrea, the President, would go with this gentleman and would go all around the brooks. And I remember my father saying that he used to show around the guy from the mines, a senior guy, that would come once a year. They used to call him the rock doctor. Which is another term for a geologist which this guy was. So, it is very likely that our dad was the guy that used to take this guy around fishing. Editor's Note: See Dolena MacLean’s interview re the Assayer boss Max MacLeod telling stories about Soutter Strachan taking him through the woods. It is very likely then that Soutter was the man who took Mr. McCrea on these fishing trips.
Milling
Donald: There was another story my friend that was telling me about the milling process. In those days they were not the state of the art as they are now plus the quality of the ore, certain chemicals that was in the ore itself made it very difficult to separate out the base metals. Plus, they took some gold out 0.1% gold. There was silver too, very little. So, they lost a lot of the value out through the tailings because they couldn’t recover- with the quality of the milling process they had at the time. Editor's Note: For more detail click here - Note from Bailey McCrea to Donald Strachan
Jeanette: One guy wanted to do that.
Donald: Go back into the tailings?
Jeanette: Yes
Donald: I’ll send the 10-page report that goes into great detail about the milling operation and all the problems they had. I expect that was part of the reason they bailed out because it was inefficient. And the quality of the concentrate wasn’t what it should be, so the market wasn’t available for it.
Jeanette: So were all the mining places like that – where it wasn’t very efficient?
Donald: No, it was more specific to Stirling. The quality of the ore complicated things. Did you ever see those little steel balls
Jeanette: What are they?
Donald: The mill is called a ball mill. What it is, is a big container with all these steel balls in it. That’s why they call it a ball mill. It would go around like this and they would crush the ore very fine. After it comes off the conveyor belt it goes into a crusher system and then down to the ball mill and then they put certain chemicals in (to separate the minerals).
Donald: The mill was a big large complex. There was a big conveyor system that took the ore from the main mine up on the hill. It was processed there and trucked away to St Peter’s. I’m sure it must have been sent out by rail after that. I think it was by rail. Editor's Note: see Murdock Morrison's interview re the ore being shipped out by train from St Peter's
Jeanette: There was a railroad station up in St Peter’s. And Murdock Morrison, do you know if he worked in St Peter’s where they were loading and unloading?
Donald: I don’t know. I know the trucks drove back and forth over the barren road steady.
The Glory Hole
Jeanette: What was the Glory Hole?
Donald: It was part of the old drift over that way and I guess they (the walls) let go and the whole thing collapsed down. I don’t think it’s all the deep.
Jeanette: On the right-hand side (going down the mine road) is that where the shafts were?
Donald: Well there was a big tall head frame- they called it - where the hoist was.
Jeanette: You were telling me that they diverted water from MacLean’s lake.
Donald: Yes, well there’s a natural stream that runs through the mine property and I guess the original stream would have been right where the glory hole is. I’m not sure if that was the 30’s operation of the mine or the 50’s but they had to control that water that was running down through that mine site. It was flooding the glory hole which was exposing it all the way down the various drifts that they were now producing. So, they had to stop that water so what they did was - about a half a kilometer back of the mine site they dammed off that creek and they diverted it to the west into the other river that flows into MacLean’s lake. So, they completely diverted it.
Water Supply
But when they did that (the diversion), they put a large pipe with a 12-inch diameter in the ground before they built the dam. They had a big valve on the end so they could run pipe down to the mine into various buildings where they used water. I’m not sure if there were wells on that site or not. I don’t think the brook would have been the main source (of water).
Jeanette: Didn’t they get water from the Stirling lake? There was a pump house there.
Donald: Yes there was a pumphouse there too, yes.
Jeanette: So they pumped water from there?
Donald: That would be another source, of water.
Jeanette: I remember when we were kids there was a dam there just behind the pumphouse.
Donald: Stirling Lake? There’s a creek that goes down by the four corners (Barkers corner), just before the Morrison's (family). That creek comes out of the Stirling Lake.
Jeanette: They must have been damming it then.
Donald: Yes, probably it brought the lake up higher.
The Stirling Bus
Jeanette: Did you ever take the bus to Sydney, the King’s bus.
Donald: I don’t remember it. I just heard about it.
The Catholic Church
Jeanette: Do you remember the Catholic church.
Donald: No just second hand. They used to have a boy scout troop out there. I was never involved with the Cub Scouts in Stirling.
Jeanette: Who were the Boy Scouts.
Donald: Leo Sampson (Sampsonville). He was a Scout or a Cub. I don’t know who the Scout Leader was.
People who worked at Stirling Mine
Jeanette: Do you remember some people who worked there?
Donald: John James (MacLeod) and his brother Angus (MacLeod) worked there. George Angus (Strachan) I don't know. Ramsay and Charlie MacLeod worked in the mines.
Jeanette: Did they work in Stirling?
Donald: They worked there. Kenny Angus Morrison used to walk across the back lands through a short cut to go to work. George (Morrison) used to walk through there to get to school. There was a two-room school house there.
Donald: Malcolm Dan worked at the Carpenter’s Shop. He was one of the carpenters. Dad worked there too. He was the foreman.
Jeanette: So what did these guys do, the carpenters?
Donald: Made ladders mostly (after the buildings were completed).
Jeanette: For the shafts?
Drifts
Donald: So, down there they had drifts. They would have to get at them to drill and stuff like that.
Jeanette: So what are drifts?
Donald: Drifts are just a horizontal tunnel. They’d blast into these drifts and then people would cut pit props and you’d take them out (to the mine) and they would take them in (underground) and put some type of beam across the top. It didn’t seem like much support to me. that supported the drifts.
Jeanette: So, the carpenters wouldn’t have anything to do with that?
Donald: I think they would go down. They would have to build scaffolds. I don’t know - another term is a stoop. When you have a drift like this and you find a very rich body, you start digging it out and you end up with a very big cavern so you can build a scaffold down there. The carpenters probably did that.
Jeanette: Then you’d have to put something up there for support?
Donald: Yes, that or drill it from the platform. That’s what they would do. They would put the scaffolding up and put a walking platform on it. They’d drill up into the ceiling. They’d load it up and then they’d come down and take all the scaffolding down and then they’d blow it (dynamite) and all the stuff would fall down onto the floor. And then they’d muck it all back. This would be at the end of the drift. The shaft would be way over here so the cars would come in (by way of) the railway system and load it all on the train and take it to the shaft and then bring it up to the surface. Once they got that ore cleaned, they may want to take another go at it. And they’d scaffold the whole thing up an extra story this time. While there, they would drill up into the ceiling and blow it all down.
Jeanette: They were quite deep under ground then?
Donald: I don’t know what the elevation would be - 200 -300 feet.
Jeanette: So they’d still be there then, or would they (the drifts) be collapsed.
Donald: They’d still be there, just full of water. When dad was out in Quebec there- he had that fall. That’s what he was doing, building those scaffolds. That’s where he fell down. I don’t think dad, as the Foreman (in Stirling), went down under ground. There would be approximately a dozen guys in the carpentry shop.
Jeanette: There was a man from L’Ardoise. His name was Mombourquette and he worked with our father and he was telling me, several years ago, that they had a lot of fun. They would always be fooling around. One time they put nails in the drywall compound and when dad went to plaster the walls, all these nails were stuck on the wall. There was a lot of carrying on, I guess.
Dismantling -after the mine closed
Donald: There was a big dismantling project. Our father was a carpenter of course. He did a lot of work. He would have been employed for another year at least.
Jeanette: Taking things down?
Donald: All the flashing on the buildings were all done with lead. Do you remember the piles over (at the old house)? He got all the lead off all these buildings. It was worth a bit of money. He was authorized to take it.
Jeanette: And then he was able to sell that.
Donald: Yes, sold it later.
Jeanette: There was a lot of wood off (the buildings). What happened to all that stuff?
Donald: Yes, well, I don't know. I guess people bought it. Or just carted it away. I don't think much was bought. They just took it away. They moved all those houses; the company houses that were all around (the mine site).
Donald: After the mine closed, I would go out to the garage after school or in the summer. I’d get out there at noon and I would dread going out there because as soon as I came in sight of the garage, there would be a pile of used lumber outside at the side of the garage where dad would have reclaimed it from the mine. My job was to back out all the nails. I just hated doing that.