More on abandoned mines, including one at Blow Me Down Bluff

On Friday, I posted about a trip to an abandoned 19th century copper mine in Avondale. I concluded that post by asking if anyone had information about that mine or other abandoned mines in the area.

Several people responded, including Mr Craig Moore, who had done some research on the Avondale mineshaft in the mid 1990s. At that point, Moore had been told by the property owner, Greg Deveraux, that the shaft was the remains of an exploration site for a copper mine, dating to 1899. He corroborated that local knowledge holds that the offshore sand bar was the remains of the excavation, and concluded his note with a bit of a mystery. Apparently, a ship left the area in 1899 headed to Wales with a load of ore samples from the exploration site, but the ship never reached its destination.

Other people responded with information about different abandoned mines. Some told me about abandoned mines in Tilt Cove, Marysvale and Brigus. Susan Furneaux wrote,

"When I lived in Colliers I was told about an abondoned mine that was there...which kind of makes sense considering the name. Not sure if it exists. It was supposed to be on the Northside of the harbour a ways out. There was an old path that went along the shore, beyond where the old settlement was. I have wondered about it often over the years."

In addition to these emails, Linda Lewis sent me the above photo, with this note:

"At Blow Me Down Bluff between Holyrood Bay & Chapel’s Cove is an abandoned mine. The attached pic of of Ed Fahey back in the 50s who was trying to attract attention to the mine at that time. It was mined back in the 1800s and is mentioned in the will of Msgr. Wm Veitch of Holyrood"

You can read Mr Veitch's will online here.

If you have heard a story about any of these mines, email me at dale@heritagenl.ca.  I'd be particularly interested in knowing the exact location of the Marysvale/Colliers/Brigus mines, if you've seen them in your own explorations, or in other old photos of mining activity in Newfoundland and Labrador.

- Dale