Pay Day at the mine. Likely taken around 1886. My guess on the photographer is Otis Boyden. The house in the background was the home of the Lind family.

Little Bay’s Miners’ Union

The first union in Newfoundland is thought to have formed on Bell Island in 1900 after the first strike there in 1896. In 'Once Upon a Mine' Wendy Martin referred to Little Bay’s miners as “forming a union of sorts” during the strike in 1883. I’ve un ...

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The Company Store

The Mining Company owned and operated stores in Little Bay. The stores were present immediately in 1878. There were two Company store locations. One at each of the main districts, namely the Bight and Loading Wharf. Miners were paid in a Company scri ...

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Crane

John William Crane and his wife Catherine arrived in Little Bay between 1878 and 1881. They're involved in the town's higher culture. They each perform at the Public Hall. Further, Catherine's sister Eliza was married to mine captain Philip McVicar.  ...

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Little Bay’s Food Culture

In this piece I'll demonstrate how the food supply of the late 19th century town of Little Bay, Newfoundland was embedded in the larger colonial shipping system. Little Bay was a company town which grew out of a mining boom in Northern Newfoundland. ...

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Eliza Blandford

All that remains of the people I cover are scattered references. What follows is an attempt to use a few documents to tell a story and in so doing catch a glimpse of a person’s life. In this case the task is made more difficult by historical patriar ...

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Baron Franz von Ellershausen

The Baron drew me in. I’d started researching my mother’s hometown of Little Bay while working on her genealogy. Growing up I’d often heard it said there that the town had once been one of the biggest on the island but the true scale of the history ...

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The Weather Lights

In a recent video I posted a 1980s interview with a woman from Little Bay Islands named Dorothy Locke in which she speaks about her experiences growing up on the island with particular focus on life there in the 1930s. It's an amazing listen and rea ...