stubsadventures

Anyone who has heard me talk about Cape Breton Island knows what that place means to me. Cape Breton is a feeling and the people there make it that much better.

On my recent trip home, it was a priority to spend some quality time with my grandfather. He is an amazing man and probably, the other only family member besides my brother who can relate to a life in a process facility. There is nothing like it, or the dangers related to it. My grandfather worked at the Sydney Steel Plant in the years following WW2, until his retirement. After recently reading a book about the plant covering its inception to the announcement of closure, I was eager to spend time with him because (of course) I had a million questions about his time there and how it differed and paralleled what my experience has been like working in the oil patch.

The cherry on the cake was when he took me for a tour of what the area looks like today and described to me what used to be where I stood. There is nothing left of the plant now, nothing at all but some piles of slag that are still in the process of being recycled. It’s hard to imagine, multiple plants of that size, making everything from steel, to nails and wires, is now gone. Nothing but fields, sports fields, children’s playgrounds and a small canal. All this, where a plant the size of a small city used to reside.

The steel plant has an amazing legacy and played an important role in NS and more specifically Cape Breton history. It’s amazing to look back and the conditions that existed, the danger that was common place and the incidents that occurred on sometimes a daily basis.

On my way home, I took the milk run and stopped in to explore Sydney Mines, Cape Breton. And, while there I happened upon an old battery which absolutely made my day. As a young kid and even now when I go home, I find these old batteries on the coast of NS some of the most fascinating places I have ever explored, world wide. Real history just sitting there out in the open, standing the test of time. Build to defend Sydney harbour during WWII, I really enjoyed my time roaming around the structures.

Stubs.