Men in the Mines

A History of Mining Activity in Nova Scotia, 1720-1992

"The diggings at Tangier are prettily situated in the forest, about half a mile from the eastern shore of the upper portion of Tangier harbour. A good road has been cut through the dense fir forest to the claims, and though our correspondent once went astray, as, unguided, he left it for some beaten cattle-path, the sound of the blasting rocks and shouting of the diggers soon recalled him to the right direction. Gold-street, as it is called — an assemblage of wooden houses, or rather shanties, raised up at an expense of some £2 or £3 in this country of cheap timber — is the subject of our Engraving. A town suddenly appearing in the midst of the woods, without clearings, fields, or inclosures, full of shops, or rather stores as they are called in America, where anything can be procured, from a crinoline to a bottle of Bass's pale ale, may be certainly reckoned amongst the novelties even of the New World; whilst the universal civility and good manners of its inhabitants would certainly hardly agree with the notions of the character of the gold-digger as forwarded to us from the Eldorados of Australia and California." Published in The Illustrated London News, 14 September 1861 p. 275.

Date: 1861

Artist: Captain Campbell Hardy, RA

Reference:   Nova Scotia Archives  Photo Collection: Illustrated Newspaper Drawer