Cape Breton's Magazine

This Vfes Marble Mountain Alex Fortune; At that particular period here everybody had his own lime quarry. All these farms along here, there were people here mining their own quarries and burning it and using it on the land. And others were mining it and they were ship? ping it away. Some were just holes in the ground; some, the cliffs were pretty high. And for this they could use dynamite and powder. They used to send the rock in ves? sels to Prince Edward Island, and they burned it over there and made quicklime. And then there were a few individuals got together and formed the Bras d'Or Lime Company (principally MacLaughlin and Saun? ders, 1884). They got the concession on all the lime quarries along here. They built a big kiln. And they had a fire go? ing there all the time. They'd burn the rock themselves. A. D. MacFadyen; They had a big scow there (the steam scow, Jessie Gray) and it used to go aroimd the country to St. Peters, Little Narrows, and all • and people made cordwood. It would take 30 or 50 cords. The cordwood was used to fire the kilns. And they brought coopers in from Halifax to make barrels. Put the lime in those and vessels would come and take it away for mortar and plaster and various things. Alex Fortune; Then around 1902 the steel company came in here • Dominion Steel and Cape Breton's Magazine/24 Coal Company from Sydney • DOSCO • and they started their first quarry down at the shore. It wasn't up where you see it all today. That first quarry is filled in to? day with screenings and mud and so forth. Refuse from later quarrying above. It was beautiful, you know. There was a great big platform and way down in the hole was the crusher, like a pendulum, that swung back and forth. And at the top of it you could put in a stone, oh, 10 times as big as that stove--and it would come out in small chunks at the bottom. It would rumble and smash • going down the cone • and the further down it went the smaller it got. They had cars running on tracks that went out on this platform. The end of the track turned up in a curve. So the driver with a horse hooked onto that car on the rails there • and got speed up to tip it into the crusher. You would jump off and let that car go. And when she went out on the track she went out on a swivel. And these plates struck the two hooks holding the tail gate • they knocked the hooks off • and the weight of the car brought the swivel up and the whole thing dumped out of the car into the crusher • and the weight of a stick on the swivel brought the whole thing back down and con? nected the track again. Marvelous. And the beauty of it! There was only two ,tracks going out to the crusher. And all