MP-0000.794.3 | The ore pile, Moose Mountain Mines, ON, about 1910
The ore pile, Moose Mountain Mines, ON, about 1910
About 1910, 19th century
Ink on paper - Halftone
7.9 x 10 cm
Gift of Stanley G. Triggs
MP-0000.794.3
© McCord Museum
Description
Keywords: Industry (942) , Print (10661)
Keys to History
The mechanization of certain tasks did not mean the end of manual labour in mining. This was true throughout industry in general, as historian Brian Montgomery has aptly demonstrated. A large contingent of day labourers was necessary for all kinds of work both at the mine and smelter. The day labourers, who could account for up to 15% of the workforce, came from farming, logging, construction and other industries. For most of them, it was their first time working in a mine, and they did not stay long. The same could be said of experienced miners, who in this pre-union era, quit more often than they were fired.
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What
The Moose Mountain building can be seen here behind the pile of rock, on which labourers have left two shovels.
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Where
This photograph was taken at the Moose Mountain mine in Sudbury. Underneath the window on the building side, we can see a hastily stacked woodpile. The wood was probably needed to stoke the steam machine inside that powered the conveyor.
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When
There were many accidents at this iron mine, as in other mines. In 1913 the company reported the deaths of two workers. One of them was E. Yarvill, a Finnish driller who was killed on July 1, after he disregarded safety regulations and began drilling an already-drilled hole still containing dynamite.
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Who
Some 25,000 miners worked in the Sudbury region when the industry was at its peak, and in 115 years of operations, mining accidents claimed close to 800 lives. But that toll strengthened the workers' bargaining power.
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