History of New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada

New Waterford, NS, Urban Community, is located 23 km north-northeast of Sydney in the industrial Cape Breton region. Incorporated as a town in 1913, in 1995 New Waterford was amalgamated into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. New Waterford is a coal-mining settlement fallen on hard times.

Formerly known as Barrachois (from barachois, meaning small port, lagoon or pond), its present name is likely derived from the Irish seaport and shire town of Waterford, from which many early settlers came. Coal mining in the vicinity began as early as 1854 at Lingan and later at Low Point in 1865. The giant Dominion Coal Company (later Dominion Steel and Coal Company) commenced operation at Barrachois in 1907; several other large mines opened before World War I. Over the years a total of 11 mines were in production. This expansion drew a largely Catholic but ethnically mixed society (Irish, Scottish, English and Eastern Europeans) to the many company houses of this single-enterprise community. Coal mining has long been known as a dangerous occupation, and one particular incident in New Waterford demonstrated this fact. At 7 a.m. on 25 July 1917 there were 270 men starting work in the No. 12 colliery. Thirty minutes later, a loud explosion was heard at the sixth, seventh and eighth levels of the pit. Sixty-five men and boys, ranging in age from 14 to 65, were killed. These casualties were added to a lengthy list of mine incidents totalling in the hundreds.