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All Canada Nova Scotia Sydney Mines Princess Colliery Disaster Monument
AO Edited

Princess Colliery Disaster Monument

A simple memorial between a ball field and a skate park honors 21 men lost in a horrific mining accident.

Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia

Added By
Don Antle
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Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Donkin Miners, ca. 1925. 86-68-16165. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University   Used by permission of the Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
“Princess” Colliery, Sydney Mines, 1916. 80-31-4211. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University   Used by permission of the Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
Princess Colliery Disaster Monument   Don Antle / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Spectators catching a little league baseball game in Sydney Mines may not suspect they are watching the game on the site of the old Princess Colliery.

Sunk in 1876, Princess Pit was the first in the Sydney coalfield to mine under the ocean. It descended to a depth of 2,000 feet (600 meters) and reached more than five miles (nine kilometers) under the Atlantic.

The men who worked the seam would be lowered in a cage, then climb onto a wagon called a rake, which then lowered them down a slope to the face.

On December 6, 1938, the cable which pulled the rake snapped. The runaway rake reached a speed of 80 miles (128 kilometers ) per hour before ending in a horrific crash at the bottom of the slope. Twenty-one men were killed and another 61 were injured.

Today, the site of Princess Pit is a large recreational area with a walking track, a skate park, and the Sydney Mines & District Little League ballfield. The monument to the 21 lives lost is just beyond the left-field wall.

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Memorials Mining History & Culture

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Don Antle

Published

May 27, 2021

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Princess Colliery Disaster Monument
150 Pitt St
Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, B1V
Canada
46.247709, -60.224571
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