The busy town of Glace Bay is situated on a north-east facing promontory of Cap Breton Island. In earlier times soldiers from the nearby French Fort Louisbourg mined coal here and the name probably comes from the ice (Fr. "glace") that the Louisbourg soldiers found in the bay in winter. The hill on which the town was built contained vast coal deposits, mined by the French since 1720. In the 19th c. when iron was discovered in neighboring Newfoundland further north, heavy industry quickly became established. Glace Bay flourished and many European emigrants arrived in the area. Nor did the town's growth grind to a halt when the coal ran out in the 1950s. A State program helped to set up new industries.
The Cape Breton Miners' Museum (follow the signs!) shows how coal originated, as well as demonstrating old and new coal mining methods. A tour of a mine is particularly impressive. Old miners graphically illustrate life at the coal seams.
Next to the museum is a reconstruction of miners' quarters in the second half of the 19th C. The coal company's shop impressively illustrates how dependent the miners were.
Marconi National Historic Site in Glace Bay deals with the life and work of Guglielmo Marconi, the Wizard of Wireless, who proved it was possible to send messages across the Atlantic using electromagnetic waves instead of wires. On dispaly are photographs, artifacts and models which depict the history of his life and inventions.
At the Miners' Museum regional coal mining history is depicted through exhibits of early mining techniques, mining communities, immigration and future sues of coal. An underground tour of the Ocean Deeps Colliery, a coal mine located beneath the Museum is available.
In the Miner's Village, the museum features a coal miners home designed to show visitors a glimpse of the typical lifestyle of a coal miner in the mid 19th Century.
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