Friday, November 25, 2011

Gold River Tours

Gold mining brought back to life on the Gold River

While Oak Island gets all the attention these days, there was a time when Lunenburg County was gold-mining country.

The Nova Scotia gold rush of the 1860s has long been forgotten by most, only to be found in books and archives around the province. That history is coming alive thanks to the Chester Municipal Heritage Society sponsoring a guided walking tour.

"It always amazes me what these people did with dynamite and hand tools," said tour guide Danny Hennigar. The tours will visit the Stewart mine and the Colonel Briscoe Stamping mill site, among others.

It is a two-hour guided walking tour of the west side of the Gold River (Mi'kmaq name is Amaqapakikek) gold mines, part of the Nova Scotia gold rush of the 1860s. On the tour you will visit old intact gold-mine shafts, trenches, the site of a dam and electrical power generation and locations of old stamping/processing mills.