Early history Before the arrival of the
Europeans, Newfoundland was the territory of the now extinct
Beothuk people. European
fishermen and
pirates already frequented the island early in the 16th century, mainly for the purpose of stocking up on
potable water. The hamlet of Freshwater to the south and Freshwater Cove to the north are reminiscent of this. As early as 1578, the English merchant Anthony Parkhurst discovered that the island contained iron ore. Sources from 1610 and 1612 also indicate that Bell Island was known to have iron ore containing rock. Finally, in 1628, settler leader
John Guy sent samples of Bell Island rocks to
England for analysis. In the 1670s and 1680s, it was a base for fishermen from
Dartmouth, a harbour town in England's
West Country. In the fishing season of 1681, for example, there were two ships and 26 boats that together accounted for a crew of 130 men.
Establishment of a permanent settlement In the early 18th century, the first people had settled permanently on the island. The oldest
Great Belle Isle census is from 1706 and records 85 residents. In the 19th century, however, there was a clear growth with already 338 inhabitants in 1845. The island thus grew into one of the many typical Newfoundland fishing villages, the so-called
outports. The inhabitants were mainly of English and Irish descent, so early on the community consisted of a mix of
Catholics and
Anglicans. In addition to fishing, they also lived from
agriculture and
livestock. These secondary activities were much more important there than elsewhere, as the island has very fertile soil by Newfoundland standards. Farmers there produced, both for their own consumption and for sale to the townspeople of St. John's,
potatoes,
strawberries,
blackcurrants,
turnips, and
white cabbage. Beginning in the 1830s, a real
secondary sector also began to emerge on Bell Island. For example, from that period on a
shipyard was active in Lance Cove and in 1848 a
brick factory was opened there as well. In 1894 they leased their rights to the New Glasgow Coal, Iron & Railroad Company (known as the "Scotia Company") of neighbouring Canada, which began mining the hematite in 1895. The weak and poor government of the
Colony of Newfoundland was eager to see such foreign investors come. The mining site was the easternmost in North America and was therefore given the name "Wabana", a combination of two terms from the native
Abenaki language which should mean "place of the first light". The location was ideal as the ore could be loaded onto ships immediately and, in addition, it was close to North American and European markets. On December 24, 1895, the first fully loaded ship departed for the steel industry of Nova Scotia. On July 3, 1896, the first ship departed for the
United States and the first transatlantic shipload departed for the port of
Rotterdam on November 22, 1897. As early as 1899 the Scotia Company definitively purchased the mining rights and shortly afterwards they sold a part of them to the Dominion Iron and Steel Company (DISCO). With the start of mining, the economy of the island changed drastically and there was a very strong population growth. The Wabana mining site grew into a large and prosperous mining village. Gradually almost everyone on the island lived directly or indirectly from that industry. High production made Newfoundland a major iron ore exporter early in the 20th century. A large part of the mined ore was exported to
Sydney, an industrial town in the north of
Nova Scotia, where processing and
smelting took place. However, the at the time industrially emerging country
Germany was also a very important
market. An important reason for this was that the
Krupp steel group was willing to pay a higher price than the Canadians and Americans. From the beginning there were occasional conflicts between the
miners and other workers on the one hand and their employer on the other, especially regarding
income. Already in 1896 a first (unsuccessful)
strike took place when 180 miners demanded an increase in the hourly wage from 10 to 12 cents. Accidents resulting in injuries or deaths also occurred regularly, to the extent that the Newfoundland government felt compelled to introduce mining legislation in 1906. Until the 1950s
horses were used as
working animals to pull empty mine cars and they had underground stables as they stayed in the mines for weeks to months at a time. Already in the early 20th century, mining jobs attracted a small number of immigrants from faraway places to Bell Island. These included a small group of
Chinese as well as some
Lebanese Christians. However, the vast majority of workers were Newfoundlanders from the immediate area, mainly from St. John's and from other coastal towns along
Conception Bay and Newfoundland's east coast. In the early days of mining, a large proportion of them also continued to live in those places. They stayed in temporary residences in Wabana during the week and went back to their families on the weekends. Over the years, however, more and more workers and their families moved permanently to Bell Island. In 1911 the island already had more than 3000 inhabitants (compared to only about 700 inhabitants before the start of mining). It had grown into one of the major iron ore producers in the world. Open Cut Ore Face (Wabana).jpg|Photo of the original
open-cast mine on Bell Island (). The
railway in the foreground was intended for mine carts. Miners of the Wabana iron ore mine (c. 1907).jpg|Miners with
shovels and
wheelbarrows working at an ore heap () BellIslandPierCa1900.jpg| The loading pier in the port of Wabana ()
First World War In the
decade before
World War I, Germany had surpassed Canada for the first time as the largest buyer of iron ore. After the outbreak of the war in 1914, mining was almost completely stopped for a whole year. They served as soldiers in battles of the
Newfoundland Regiment in Northern France,
Belgium and the
Ottoman Empire or served in some cases as
lumberjacks in
Scotland. In the end, 29 Bell Islanders were killed on the European front and dozens more were wounded. Still others stayed in German prison camps after being captured by the enemy. Production at the various Bell Islands mines resumed in 1915, although there was no real recovery until 1916. During the war there was a limited recovery due to war-related demand and limited rise in the iron price, although this was by no means sufficient to compensate for the loss of the German export market. Between 1920 and 1923, Newfoundland also went through an economic crisis. The population size, on the other hand, continued to grow continuously all this time. As early as 1923, Bell Island had surpassed
Harbour Grace as the second largest place in the
Dominion of Newfoundland (after the capital St. John's). The Germans had increasingly turned to Bell Island as the
Treaty of Versailles had severely hampered most of their other import options. At that time, Wabana had largely grown into a
company town, built after the North American trends of the time, with workers being housed close to the mines. However, it was rather a hybrid between a typical company town and an ordinary settlement. This is because there was already a settlement before the industrial rise and because there always also were residents and businesses that were not directly connected to the mining companies. The government provided no, or at least no steadfast, local council for the Bell Islanders. With the exception of a few soon-discontinued council attempts in the 1910s and 1920s, there was no local government at all. This gap was partly filled by the supervisory staff of the mining companies, which provided a limited and somewhat
paternalistic form of local government. At the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to mining and continuous population growth, the island got all kinds of modern facilities relatively early. For example, from 1907 the island was already connected to the
electricity network, which was important for the further professionalization of the mining industry. From 1922 a telephone cable also ran to the island and in 1931 a local
radio station was established. With the
Wabana Druggist there was already a first local monthly magazine in 1910, although the weekly magazine
Bell Island Miner in particular was long-lasting (1913–1944). Other facilities provided the island in the early 20th century included shops, hotels, restaurants, a courthouse and sports clubs. Shortly after the takeover, however, the
Great Depression began, which led to years of reduced global demand for iron and steel. In the first half of that decade in particular, this was negative for the growth of the island economy. For several years there was a high unemployment rate reminiscent of the early 1920s, especially in 1934 when only one mine was open for a while. Most mining families continued to engage in small-scale farming, fishing, bird hunting and berry picking to supplement the family income. This was especially important in periods of economic crisis, such as the early 1930s, in order to be able to feed all mouths. In addition, on 14 January 1937, a devastating fire raged in the town square of Wabana, which reduced fourteen shops and seven houses to ashes. From 1936, however, mining had started to prosper again. was a positive factor that meant a way out of the crisis for Bell Island (because of the accompanying demand for iron). In March 1939, when another war with Germany seemed very likely, the
Commission of Government governing Newfoundland identified Bell Island as one of the most likely targets of a German attack. After all, it was obvious that the iron ore would be very important for the
Allied war industry. Among other things, they manned the coastal defence
battery that was built in 1940 and consisted of two
QF 4.7-inch Mk IV rapid-firing naval guns, each built on top of a concrete platform. In addition, the Newfoundland government also had two
searchlights installed. The government of neighbouring Canada paid for part of this defensive construction project as it was also of great importance to their industry in
Nova Scotia. Also in 1940 the first
lighthouse was built on the island, namely in the northeast. The war years were a traumatic period for the Bell Islanders. The disaster began with a tragic accident that happened on November 10, 1940. Two ferries collided with each other that day during a
blizzard, namely the crowded
W. Garland and
Little Golden Dawn (which besides the captain only had an engineer on board).
W. Garland sank within minutes, killing 23 people. There were only six survivors in all, including the two people aboard
Little Golden Dawn. As had been feared years earlier, hostile
Nazi Germany also effectively launched attacks on the Bell Island mining industry during World War II. In 1942 they launched the attack twice with a
U-boat, the fearsome German type of
submarine. It became known as the
Battle of Bell Island. in 1942 just off the Bell Island coast In the night of 4–5 September 1942, the
U-513 under the command of Rolf Rüggeberg entered Conception Bay. 29 people on board were killed.
Lord Strathcona also sank, albeit with no fatalities. Amid the chaos, the U-boat was accidentally hit while coming to the surface and gunners from the coastal battery as well as gunners on the coal-carrying freighter "Evelyn B." fired on it.
U-513 then fled Conception Bay in slightly damaged condition. Shortly afterwards,
U-518 also attacked two freighters filled with ore just minutes apart. As with the first attack, it involved ships waiting to eventually cross the ocean in
convoy. It concerned the Canadian
Rose Castle (hit by two torpedoes) and
P.L.M. 27, a British-owned
Free French ship (hit by one torpedo).
Rose Castle was wrecked with 10,300 tons of ore and much of the crew. Also the
P.L.M. 27 sank to the bottom with 12 fatalities among those on board. What was most important for the Germans is that thousands of tons of iron ore were lost and four large freighters were disabled. The importance attached to the missions is clear from the fact that in the second attack they specifically sought out some crew members who were already familiar with the waters of Conception Bay via cargo ships.
Peak of mining World War II ultimately proved to be a period of growth for Bell Island's mining economy. The (again) temporary loss of Germany as a market was amply compensated by the demand from the British and Canadian war industries. Until then, Bell Island also remained the sole supplier to Sydney's steel industry in Nova Scotia; When Newfoundland joined the
Canadian Confederation in 1949, the Bell Island mines could immediately call themselves the largest iron ore mining operation in Canada (with over 43% of the total national production). There was also a well-organized workers' union since 1941 and working conditions and safety were better at that time than in, for example, most
American mines. It was during this heyday that the government officially granted Wabana
municipality status in 1950, albeit to the dismay of a large part of the population (who were generally conservative). The inhabitants had rejected a municipality for the entire island in 1947 via a
referendum. As early as the end of the 1950s, however, the mines encountered increasing problems due to the presence of new competitors on the market who could produce cheaper and, moreover, often delivered ore with fewer impurities. In contrast, new open-cast mines in
West Africa and
South America produced large quantities of high-quality non-phosphorus ore. The complete lack of local anchoring of the mining government also played a role. As early as 1949, the closure of the deep and largely subsea
No. 2 Mine took place, mainly because of the high cost of operating it. out of shoreline and was up to 4.8 km deep, Mining brought great wealth to the island, but the flip side of the coin was that over 100 miners died in 71 years.
Impact of the mine closures The island ended up in a very serious
economic depression due to the closure of the mines. Because there was hardly any employment left, a real
population exodus started already from the end of the 1950s. Other industrial towns in the province of Ontario, such as
Windsor and
Toronto, also attracted many former miners. The same was true to a lesser extent for some growth centres within the province of Newfoundland, such as the nearby capital St. John's and the western Labrador mining communities
Wabush and
Labrador City. One of the most famous figures within the Bell Island
diaspora was
Harry Hibbs. He became a
folk musician based in his new home of Toronto and grew into an icon of traditional
Newfoundland music. His famous song
The Bell Island Song sings of the mine closures and the unemployed workers who consequently had no choice but to leave their homes and take the ferry one last time. In the 1960s, Wabana quickly developed a desolate atmosphere due to the many empty houses, boarded-up commercial buildings and massive unemployment. The provincial government then sold outdated homes for $1 apiece to anyone willing to demolish them for
firewood. In contrast, the houses in good condition were used in some instances to temporarily house people living on benefits. From the 1970s, the declining demographic trend slowed down, although it continued uninterruptedly in the following decades. Decades after the closures, the negative economic impact continues to be felt. In the 21st century, the population count is still significantly lower in every five-year census compared to the previous one. Mainly because of the limited job possibilities, more people are leaving than there are moving towards the island. Above all there is also a large aging population, which means that there are far more deaths than births. Its proximity and fairly easy accessibility to the capital is one of the main reasons why the island still has a relatively high population and has not become one of Newfoundland's numerous
ghost towns.
21st century The very outdated network of
waterworks on the island was in such a bad state that since 2002 there has been an official guideline to
boil the tap water for consumption. The tap water in some parts of Wabana takes on a yellow, brown or even black colour at times, often contains
silt and leaves stains on clothing,
tableware and in bathtubs. In 2022, only limited repairs have been carried out as there is only very little budget available for repairs. Since 2014 there has been a
water treatment station, partly financed by the province, where every day between 200 and 500 inhabitants go with
bottles and
jars to get clean water. In 2015 and 2019, residents complained about the situation in the
press. A similar issue occurs in dozens of other small and remote communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, affecting a total of 10% of the provincial population in 2022. In 2006–2007, divers led by Steve Lewis of
The Explorers Club explored and documented the flooded mine tunnels of Wabana. On February 4, 2007, American expedition member Joe Steffen died of an
air embolism. The divers continued the project despite the loss of a colleague. In addition to providing historically interesting information and photos, they also built 2 km
line, making future diving missions easier. In 2016, as part of historical research, including the creation of a visual
archive, a new diving mission took place in parts of the more than 100 km of flooded mine tunnels. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society named it "Expedition of the Year". In 2011, some volunteers started a radio project that lasted one week. Funds were then raised to establish a permanent radio station. On November 5, 2012, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission granted a
licence to
Radio Bell Island. The broadcasts started on January 28, 2013, and since then the island again has its own
radio station. Among other things, a fight about the distribution of
bingo income caused a lot of commotion in 2016. The political turmoil has been discussed several times in the provincial press and at the end of 2017 Bell Island even made the national press. In 2018, the mayor of Wabana did a call to unity. On April 23, 2019, a huge section of a northern cliff plunged down. This caused a huge bang and accompanying shock wave that could be heard and felt in several places along Conception Bay (and was initially reminiscent of the
Bell Island Boom). In the summer of 2019, divers from the
Royal Canadian Navy undertook a salvage operation to retrieve unexploded explosives from the WWII shipwrecks off the coast of Bell Island. They then detonated the bombs on the Newfoundland mainland in a controlled manner. In 2021, the Navy completed the work by also clearing the firearms on board the ships as well as ammunition fired from the coastal battery. As two years earlier, the bombs were defused on land so as not to damage marine life and the touristic and historically important wrecks. In October 2021, during the
corona pandemic, the provincial government announced that Bell Island had the lowest vaccination rate in Newfoundland and Labrador. Only 66% of those eligible had
vaccinated against
COVID-19, compared to a provincial vaccination rate of 82% at the time. During the same period, two of the three
doctors on the island retired, with the last remaining doctor to retire in December 2021. This sparked a fear among the largely
ageing population that there was no medical care would be more on the island except for one nurse at the local emergency room. After a charm offensive and accompanying
Facebook campaign in the style of the movie
The Grand Seduction, residents convinced one of the departed doctors to come back to the island in March 2022 (albeit on a contract of only 11 weeks). At the end of June 2022, Bell Island was again left without a doctor. In the 21st century, some opinion makers and politicians suggested building a bridge or tunnel from Newfoundland to Bell Island. == Geography ==