Gold Rush Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia

Mike Parker

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ISBN: 9781897426043

Gold Rush Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia

  Author:   Mike Parker    
  Publisher:  Pottersfield Press

Gold Rush Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia tells the fascinating stories of abandoned communities, not haunted buildings and paranormal encounters, although the occasional resident spirit does make an appearance. Ghost towns generally begin as industry-based communities of convenience for mining but when resources were depleted, marks slumped or demand outstripped production, their reason for being ended. 

The story of mining in Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s oldest, yet is perhaps the province’s best kept heritage secret. More gold was mined worldwide in the 1800s than during the previous five thousand years. Since Canada was one of the worlds largest gold producers, auriferous tales and legends abound from that era of motherlodes found and fortunes lost. Nova Scotia heralded the first of its three gold rushes 37 years before men braved Yukon’s Chilkoot Pass heading to the Klondike. Adventurers from the world over were drawn to Nova Scotia’s burgeoning nineteenth-century gold districts as was “a motley crew of day labourers, farmers, fishermen, ruined mechanics, drunkards and gamblers.”

An air of mysticism shrouding ghost towns holds a fascination for historians, social scientists, treasure and relic hunters, geocachers and nostalgia buffs. Mike Parker tells the story of characters and con men, industry and labour, prosperity and recession. Although abandoned gold mining settlements are the book’s central theme, ghost towns built upon coal, iron ore and copper are featured as well. Scores of exhaustively researched images, supported by informative, entertaining text, tell the sad story of a great heritage that has been nearly erased from our history books. 

Details and Specs
ISBN associated with this title: 9781897426043
Item PC0177
PublisherPottersfield Press
PublisherPottersfield Press
Published on April 30 2009
Language eng
Pages 175
Format Paperback
Dimensions9.75(in) x 6.75(in)
Shipping weight360(g)
Status ACTIVE TITLE
Mike Parker is a best-selling author who has been writing about his native province for many years and has earned numerous accolades, including that of Nova Scotia's Storyteller. Mike is affiliated with the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary's University as a research associate. He is a graduate of Acadia University and a long-time resident of Dartmouth.