#mining camp

A helicopter is "weathered in" at a camp high up in the Mackenzie Mountains.

British Columbia

“Notre Empire du Nord,” La Gazette du Nord. May 6, 1932. Page 8. ---- PALMAROLLE ET SES NOUVEAUX COLONS ---- Au pays des mines, à une dizaine de milles du chemin de fer National du Canada, traversé par une rivière poissonneuse qui se jette dans le lac Abitibi. Palniarolle offre des avantages sérieux aux familles qui veulent établir leurs nombreux enfants. Ce sol d’alluvions argileux, défriché, égoutté et bien cultivé, produit en quantité le mil, le trèfle, les grains, les légumineuses et les légumes. Cette région deviendra fameuse pour l’industrie laitière l’elevage et la culture mixte.

Il y a à peine dix ans il ne se récoltait pas la 50 bottes de foin.  On en fauche maintenant des millier.s de tonnes. L’an dernier, en plus de 10,000 minots de grain de la production du beurre, des oeufs, des volailles, du porc, des viandes, on y récolta divers légumes et des patates pour les besoins de la population.

Et Palmarolle est un fameux pays de chasse.

Quoique la foret soit d’une belle venue, le défrichement des terres est facile. La rivière Palmarolle est navigable et les usines de pulpe et de papier de l’Iroquous Falls sont à l’autre bout du lac Abibiti; ce qui donne aux colons un marchée avantageaux pour la vente de leur bois. Il ne faudrait pas oublier, cependant, qu’à Palmarolle comme ailleurs, présentement, les prix payés pour le bois sont descendus à un niveau ridiculement bas.

Palmarolle est à moitié chemin entre la voie ferrée et les fameux dépôts aurifères de la mine Beatty. Quoique de basse teneur ces minérais d’or sont si abondnts qu’il se bâtira là nous dit-on, une petite ville minière. Ce sera un marché avantageux pour ceux des colons qui vondront se spécialiser dans la production des denrées nécessaires aux mineurs du pays.

A Palmarolle on trouve une bonne chapelle, des écoles, de bons chemins, des magasins, un presbytère et un curé actif et dévoué aux intérêts de sa paroisse. 

Le 18 mai dernier, sur le convoi quittant Québec et Montréal pour Cochrane se trouvait un groupe de Canadiens qui allaient visiter les terres de notre empire du Nord, dont un M. Côté venu de Sherbrooke,

A Amos, ce dernier rencontre le missionnaire qui l’interroge.

—Vous venez pour vous établir au pays ?

—Oui.

- Vous êtes marié, je suppose?

—Un peu! une femme et treize enfants.

—Avez-vous un peu d’argent. pour vous partir?

- Nous, j’ai perdu ce que j’avais.

- Alors, comment esperez-vous arriver à faire vivre tout votre monde, dans un temps ou le bois ne se vend pas, en meme temps que vous défricherez une ferme, que vous la logerez, que vous achèterez des animaux et des instruments aratoires?

—Je ne le sais pas, mais je veux essayer. 

Et M. Côté part pour aller visiter le pays. Le missionnaire n’avait guère confiance. 

A Palmarolle, M. Côté achète une ferme de 300 acres dont une dizaine en défrichement, une partie en bridé sale, renversé, le reste en foret généralement pillée. Une bonnee grange était batie.

Son marché fait, à crédit, M. Côté retourne, arrêtant à Québec, demander du secours pour le transport de sa famille et de ses effets de ménage. Quand il fut connu qu’il avait 13 enfants et pas de capital argent, on lui refusa tout secours.

Archaeologists in Israel say they've discovered elements of a sophisticated gatehouse at a mining camp that dates back to the biblical era of King David and King Solomon in the 10th century B.C.

Recent excavations at the hilltop copper-smelting factory known as Slaves' Hill in the Timna Valley have revealed a fortified gatehouse with donkey stables. The archaeologists, led by Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University, think these features show that this Iron Age settlement had a highly organized defense system and depended on an impressive network of long-distance trade.

On September 29 1931, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police murdered three miners in Estevan, Saskatchewan. The miners and their families were striking for union recognition.

In 1931, 600 miners in the Souris coal fields of southeast Saskatchewan faced wage cuts from Western Dominion Collieries. Western Dominion was widely considered to be one of the most brutal employers in the mining industry.

Cave-ins were common because the company refused to buy new lumber for rotting frames. Western Dominion refused to provide adequate ventilation to alleviate high levels of sickness among the workers. The miners worked ten-hour shifts.

Off the job, the miners’ lives were still controlled by the company. The miners and their families lived in company housing: uninsulated tar paper shacks infested with lice and bedbugs. The miners had to shop at company stores to buy all their necessities.

After the wage cuts in 1931, the miners began organizing a union and joined the Mine Workers’ Union of Canada, affiliated to the Workers’ Unity League. The WUL was formed by the Communist Party of Canada in 1929.

After a mass meetings of more than a thousand miners and their families in Taylorton and Estevan, 100 percent of the miners signed union cards in late August 1931.

When the union requested the company sit down and bargain a contract, the mine operators refused to recognize the union, saying they would not bargain with the MWUC because it was led by Communists. In neighbouring Alberta, mine operators had already negotiated with MWUC.

Strike After a vote, miners went on strike September 7. The operators brought in scabs on September 16 to reopen some of the larger pits. Mass picketing stopped the scabs. The mining communities supported the strike in their hundreds.

On September 29, the miners and their wives and children started a caravan tour through Saskatchewan’s coal country to drum up more public support. When they arrived in Estevan with their banners reading “We will not work for starvation wages” and “Down with the company store”, Estevan police blockaded the peaceful procession and refused them passage through town.

Ordered to disperse, the miners refused. The police chief then assaulted one of the miners, leading to a shoving match. The police responded by ordering arrests but the miners and their families resisted, using picket signs and throwing stones to fend off the police attack.

The Murders The RCMP, which had been called upon by the municipal government, then opened fire on the crowd.

Three miners, Peter Markunas, Nick Nargan, and Julian Gryshko were killed. Eight other unarmed strikers were wounded by RCMP gunfire.

Firing wildly into the crowd, the RCMP wounded one of their own officers, and hit four bystanders.

After this so-called “riot”, police raided the miners’ family homes and made numerous arrests. Several of the miners were sentenced to hard labour.

Keep on keepin on Despite the RCMP murders, the miners did not stop their strike.

A week after the police riot, the mine owners conceded the 8-hour day, better wages, rent reductions, and an end to the company store monopoly. In exchange, the miners made the difficult decision to drop their demand for union recognition. They did not win union recognition until the mid-1940s.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the RCMP murders, a local memorial was erected to the three fallen miners.

The municipal authorities, local police and RCMP were vocally opposed to the memorial and demanded the inscription on the tomb be changed. The miners refused.

Shortly after, the memorial was vandalized: “RCMP” was chiseled off the stone memorial.

The Daily Worker, the newspaper of the Communists, ran a cartoon mocking the coal operators’ hurt feelings and displayed and RCMP officer shedding tears while pointing at the tombstone.

The miners did not win union recognition but improved their lives dramatically, and broke the company’s control over the daily life of the miners’ families. Three miners sacrificed their lives for the cause.