Miners Museum, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Note: Gasoline is now 1.42 L Canadian which is $5.37 a gallon USD!

Today we went to the Miners Museum in Glace Bay, NS (coal mining)
http://www.minersmuseum.com/the_museum.htm

The green pin is where we're camped
& the red one is Glace Bay where the Miner's Museum  is located.

Glace Bay's Miners Museum is about an hour & a half from our camp in Baddeck. It's only about 65 miles but it's a slow drive with some traffic too.

All places here on Cape Breton Island, NS  take a long time to get to because there are many bays, inlets & arms of harbors that one must circumvent to get anywhere.

This makes for long days of driving. Today it was 139 miles with some diversions.
As the crow flies it is only about  30 miles.

The Miner's Museum was well worth the $12 entrance fee.

http://www.minersmuseum.com/mine_tour.htm

The guides are all retired miners. Our guide was Sheldon. 

He was very funny with his stories but he also made me cry. 

Cry because the miner's stories are so very sad.
 He was able to add a little quip or something funny to keep things from being morose.

We needed to wear hardhats & take canes to lean upon because the tunnels we walked along were only about 4.5 feet high.

I'm really glad we were made to wear those hardhats.
It was quite low in places & we hit our heads several times.
 We'd hear the taller folks hitting their heads frequently & we'd all laugh!

Yes, it was really wet underfoot too. Joey & I had on hiking boots but some only had sandals & even a few with flip flops!  Sheldon, the guide said at times there's a lot more water & then they won't allow tourists without proper shoes.

 It was cold, wet & uneven underfoot for the 45-60 minute tour. Quite an enlightening experience.

There was even a small underground garden! We were asked to sit on benches around the small garden & were encouraged to ask questions about his history as a miner.

The guides are encouraged to take personal questions & talk about their lives as miners.

Sheldon was very open & honest.

Now I REALLY under the song "Sixteen Tons" & especially the line:

"I owe my soul to the company store". I never really understood THAT before. It truly was SLAVERLY back before some laws were implemented.
In 1873, there were eight coal companies operating in Cape Breton. The miners were paid from 80 cents to $1.50 per day and boys were paid 65 cents.
Every coal company had a Company Store & the miners HAD to buy from this store their food, clothing & tools.
Prices were such that they could NEVER get ahead. 
Their homes were also provided for the family of the miners BUT if a miner got injured & stayed out of the mines for too long the "company" would kick them out of their homes.

They used PIT PONIES to do the hauling.  
Most of them never saw the light of day.

It was pouring rain today; cats & dogs type rain.

WE ARE THANKFUL THAT WE WERE NOT "TOWING".

We are NOT used to this! Hey, Los Angeles IS a desert!

The whole way back to camp Joey had to drive in the downpour in the dark.

The highways here have almost no streetlights & when it's raining the painted lines are very difficult to see; at times impossible……very stressful.