In 1930, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board erected a cairn and plaque in Port Morien to memorialize “Canada’s Coal Industry” (see Figure Eight). The plaque reads:
Two thousand feet south-easterly of this place are the remains of the first regular coal mining operations in Canada, established by the French in 1720 from the modest beginning of those early days this industry has become one of national and imperial importance. This site donated by Dominion Coal Company, erected 1930.
While this monument commemorates the beginnings of coal mining on Cape Breton Island, it does not explicitly recognize the value of workers and their families in the success and expansion of the coal industry. The pre-modern history of the Cape Breton coal industry is juxtaposed with the contemporary operations of the Dominion Coal Company to present an industrial march of progress in which the French, British, and Canadian regimes are represented.
This monument can also be seen as a reaction on the part of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC) to the development of Maritime regionalism during the first two decades of the century. E.R. Forbes describes the Maritime Rights Movement, which had developed by 1919, as a regional protest movement that sought to assert the political and economic rights of the Maritimes against central-Canadian hegemony. [1] W.C. Milner, a Maritime member of the HSMBC during this period, was instrumental in fighting for increased regional representation in the national commemorative landscape. [2] In this context, the coal industry monument in Port Morien can be viewed as a progressive attempt to recognize the economic importance of eastern Canadian industry. Although it does not specifically commemorate Cape Breton workers, it indicates a national commemorative shift that became more inclusive of regionalism.
Footnotes
[1] E.R. Forbes, “The Origins of the Maritime Rights Movement,” Acadiensis, vol. 5, no. 1 (Autumn, 1975), 66.
[2] Donald MacLeod, “Our Man in the Maritimes: ‘Down East’ with the Public Archives of Canada, 1872-1932,” Archivaria vol. 17 (Winter, 1983-84), 92.
Two thousand feet south-easterly of this place are the remains of the first regular coal mining operations in Canada, established by the French in 1720 from the modest beginning of those early days this industry has become one of national and imperial importance. This site donated by Dominion Coal Company, erected 1930.
While this monument commemorates the beginnings of coal mining on Cape Breton Island, it does not explicitly recognize the value of workers and their families in the success and expansion of the coal industry. The pre-modern history of the Cape Breton coal industry is juxtaposed with the contemporary operations of the Dominion Coal Company to present an industrial march of progress in which the French, British, and Canadian regimes are represented.
This monument can also be seen as a reaction on the part of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC) to the development of Maritime regionalism during the first two decades of the century. E.R. Forbes describes the Maritime Rights Movement, which had developed by 1919, as a regional protest movement that sought to assert the political and economic rights of the Maritimes against central-Canadian hegemony. [1] W.C. Milner, a Maritime member of the HSMBC during this period, was instrumental in fighting for increased regional representation in the national commemorative landscape. [2] In this context, the coal industry monument in Port Morien can be viewed as a progressive attempt to recognize the economic importance of eastern Canadian industry. Although it does not specifically commemorate Cape Breton workers, it indicates a national commemorative shift that became more inclusive of regionalism.
Footnotes
[1] E.R. Forbes, “The Origins of the Maritime Rights Movement,” Acadiensis, vol. 5, no. 1 (Autumn, 1975), 66.
[2] Donald MacLeod, “Our Man in the Maritimes: ‘Down East’ with the Public Archives of Canada, 1872-1932,” Archivaria vol. 17 (Winter, 1983-84), 92.