Our time in Cape Breton was limited. I had been told that the most important thing to see there was Louisbourg, and I had been told that from many different sources. The weather was cloudy so the other great site, the Cabot Trail, would not be at its best. We woke and headed for Louisbourg. There were a number of people waiting for the site to open and we were among them.
Louisbourg was critical in the battle for North America. It was owned by the French and was a great stronghold in Nova Scotia. It was then sieged and eventually demolished by the British. When I say demolished I mean it. Everything was more or less flattened. You might be wondering then what we were there to see. Well, a while back the government thought that this would be a good tourist attraction, and an important one with all of the historical significance. So, they got all of the miners who were in Cape Breton and were unemployed and set them to work rebuilding Louisbourg. It is now the largest site like this in North America. They finished rebuilding it (though construction is ongoing in some parts) and people moved in. They live in the time and are period in everything they do. Since we were off season there was only a skeleton crew working, but still, we could see people as they would have been in the 1700’s.
It was amazing.
Everything is period. There are animals and people and just everything. You can see them baking bread for the soldiers, and you can even buy a loaf. Not all of the restaurants were open, but you can go eat a lower, middle, or upper class eaterys. In this case we went to the lower class restaurant. The entire place was like a dream and everything was amazing. Bread baked in the old way, period food, period chocolate, a musket demonstration. Fantastic.
Everyone should go here. And I should go here when it is high season and when everyone is around.
I cannot stress this enough: Amazing.
We still had some time in the day so we headed to another site. We did not really have the time for Cabot Trail, and the weather was still very poor. We almost got an impromptu shower in Louisbourg. With all of that in mind we decided to go to Glace Bay to see the Miners’ Museum. This museum is owned by the people of Glace Bay and the tours are given by ex-miners. What tours? Well, they didn’t just want to give you a boring museum, so when they built it they found a coal vein and dug a mine. Then, they built a museum on top of it. That is the Miners’ Museum.
We got to see a few exhibits to set the mood and then we were fitted with hard hats and poncho things before heading down. Out guide spend thirtyish years working in the mines and now seventeen years working in the museum. He was full of stories and told us about mining and about miners. Once we were all briefed up we headed down into the mine. This mine was luckily lit by electricity, but he told us of his early days mining. No electric lamps, just the lamp on your head. Then he showed us how coal was mined and how the workers did their things. We hobbled down through the passages, skidding our hard hatted heads along the ceiling and saw the sights. We also saw an underground garden before heading back to the surface.
This was another sight to see. It was amazing to see the history, and very satisfying to snag a piece of coal from the vein running straight through the ground.
We returned to the camp, went for a short walk, microwaved some burgers, and headed in for another windy night.
p.s. Do not forget. Photos are up in the albums!!!
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