It’s been nearly 68 years since an explosion in the Number 4 mine under Springhill killed more than three dozen miners, but Ethel Gilbert still remembers it like it was yesterday.
“I was teaching at the Valley Road school when it happened,” Gilbert said following Miners’ Memorial Day ceremonies in Springhill on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. “My husband came and got me. He was supposed to go to work that night at 11, and the explosion happened around 4.”
Her father was working in the mine at the time of the explosion and became one of the 39 coal miners who never made it out of the mine and whose names are engraved on one of the monuments at the Miners’ Memorial Park.
“It was hard because it was just my mom and I left,” she said. “My brother was working out in British Columbia, but he made it home in time for the funeral.”
It just two years later in October 1958 when the ground underneath Springhill shook, killing 75 miners. Valerie Alderson lost her dad, Raymond ‘Tommy’ Tabor, in the bump.
“It’s important we remember because it’s our past. A lot of people say if you don’t remember your past how can you go ahead,” she said. “Some think it’s too much, but it’s never enough.”
“It was a long time ago. I was nine years old at the time, but the emotion is still there. Pretty soon there won’t be any of the children left who are directly connected to what happened.”
This year marks 66 years since the last of three major mine disasters ended large-scale mining in the community. The Bump in October 1958 killed 75 miners, occurring just two years after a mine explosion in 1956 killed 39 miners. The 1891 explosion killed 125 men and boys.
Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Murray Scott pauses for a moment after laying a wreath at Miners’ Memorial Day ceremonies in Springhill on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Darrell Cole – Municipality of Cumberland photo
The names of the victims are engraved on the memorials in Miner’s Memorial Park on Main Street along with several hundred more names of victims killed in the mines throughout the industry’s history in Springhill.
Miner’s Memorial Day is also known as Davis Day, an annual day of remembrance of miners who were killed on the job in Nova Scotia. It’s named for William Davis, a coal miner who was killed in 1925 during a protest by striking miners. The protest occurred near New Waterford in Cape Breton after the mining company cut off water and electricity during a long, bitter miners’ strike. Residents marched on the pumping station at Waterford Lake demanding the utilities be restored.
During a confrontation with armed company police, shots were fired and Davis was killed. The Davis family had a strong connection to Springhill. The family immigrated to Canada and settled
During the service at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church, Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Murray Scott said Springhill will always be a community of heroes.
The mayor said he was only 12 when his father died of natural causes at age 47. Still, he remembers seeing the pain and suffering in many neighbourhoods and families at the loss of husbands, fathers, brothers and other family members.
He considers everyone involved to be heroes, from the men and boys who worked underground supporting their families in the face of danger, the miners who were trapped underground for days not knowing if they’d be found, the draegermen and barefaced miners who risked danger by going underground repeatedly to search for trapped miners, the wives and mothers of the miners and the community as a whole and how it responded and continues to remember.
“I’m proud to say I am a Springhiller surrounded by heroes,” the mayor said during the church service. “I grew up in a town filled with heroes. Not the type of heroes that kids are in awe of who are seen on television or the movies, sports or the books they read. Springhill heroes were and are real-life heroes, men, women and even children from different families and backgrounds.”
“In today’s world, the response to natural disasters is immediate with support put in place to assist families. But during those times there were little such supports,” the mayor said. “There was very little support going forward for widows and their families. These women were basically left to determine their own futures.”