CAPE BRETON'S RAIL LINES are perhaps best known for their substantial roles in the coal and steel industries-and their decline as those industries faded away. Yet, despite their prominent connections to coal and steel, railways played many other important roles in the life of the Island.For a hundred years, railways carried people to and from Cape Breton as well as between communities on the island. Railways carried the mail; before the development of the telephone system, the railway companies provided telegraph service for occasions when the mail was too slow; railways moved freight and express for individuals and businesses; and the railways provided jobs, in large numbers, directly to their own employees and indirectly through companies whose products and services they used.The first horse-powered line at Sydney Mines is a contender for recognition as the first railway in Canada, a subject examined in chapter 1. The case for that honour requires a definition of “railway” based on a long-run sense of history-but any serious look at railways calls for a long-run view.In 1829, only four years after the opening of the Stockton and Darlington in County Durham, England, the railway age came to Cape Breton. The first lines on the island used horse-power for more than two decades. Steam locomotives did not arrive until 1853. The early Cape Breton experience was a direct transfer of early English technology, but what had happened in England over the course of two hundred years occurred on Cape Breton within the span of twenty-five years.Over the next century-and-a-half, as some areas of Cape Breton evolved from a rural and agricultural society into an urban and industrial one, railways played a central role in supporting the changes that took place. This book looks at those railways in the contexts of what was happening on and beyond the Island.Cape Breton's railways were shaped by factors such physical geography, availability of both capital and customers, and the distribution of population and industries. In response to those factors, railway builders and operators often had to make difficult choices and try to deal with factors they could not control.

Winner of CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Winner of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award A young boy wakes up to the sound of the sea, visits his grandfather’s grave after lunch and comes home to a simple family dinner with his family, but all the while his mind strays to his father digging for coal deep down under the sea. Stunning illustrations by Sydney Smith, the award-winning illustrator of Sidewalk Flowers, show the striking contrast between a sparkling seaside day and the darkness underground where the miners dig. With curriculum connections to communities and the history of mining, this beautifully understated and haunting story brings a piece of Canadian history to life. The ever-present ocean and inevitable pattern of life in a Cape Breton mining town will enthrall children and move adult readers.

Biff and whiff, baker’s fog and lu’sknikn, pie social and milling frolic – these are just a few examples of the distinctive language of Cape Breton Island, where a puck is a forceful blow and a Cape Breton pork pie is filled with dates, not pork. The first regional dictionary devoted to the island’s linguistic and cultural history, the Dictionary of Cape Breton English is a fascinating record of the island’s rich vocabulary. Dictionary entries include supporting quotations culled from the editors’ extensive interviews with Cape Bretoners and considerable study of regional variation, as well as definitions, selected pronunciations, parts of speech, variant forms, related words, sources, and notes, giving the reader in-depth information on every aspect of Cape Breton culture. A substantial and long-awaited work of linguistic research that captures Cape Breton’s social, economic, and cultural life through the island’s language, the Dictionary of Cape Breton English can be read with interest by Backlanders, Bay byes, and those from away alike.

Dr. C. Lamont MacMillan had no idea of the life that awaited him when he began his medical practice in Baddeck, Cape Breton, in 1928. At that time it was more common for doctors to travel to their patients. As a result, navigating the rural landscape was often more difficult for these doctors than providing diagnoses. In Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor, MacMillan relates over forty years of his memories and experiences as a travelling physician with warmth, wit, and a genuine love for the life he lived. He shares stories about his patients, his family, the beloved horses that carried him from home to home, the Maritimes' fickle weather, and the people that helped him through it. The stories span over a century, and highlight MacMillan's own experiences as well as the recollections of the people he cared for until his retirement from medical practice. Entertaining and heartwarming, Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor is a classic of the genre.

The story is simple, seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy. As an adult he remembers the way things were back home on the farm on the west coast of Cape Breton. The time was the 1940s, but the hens and the cows and the pigs and the sheep and the horse made it seem ancient. The family of six children excitedly waits for Christmas and two-year-old Kenneth, who liked Halloween a lot, asks, “Who are you going to dress up as at Christmas? I think I’ll be a snowman.” They wait especially for their oldest brother, Neil, working on “the Lake boats” in Ontario, who sends intriguing packages of “clothes” back for Christmas. On Christmas Eve he arrives, to the delight of his young siblings, and shoes the horse before taking them by sleigh through the woods to the nearby church. The adults, including the narrator for the first time, sit up late to play the gift-wrapping role of Santa Claus. The story is simple, short and sweet, but with a foretaste of sorrow. Not a word is out of place. Matching and enhancingthe text are black and white illustrations by Peter Rankin, making this book a perfect little gift. For readers from nine to ninety-nine, our classic Christmas story by one of our greatest writers.

Angus MacAskill, known far and wide as the Cape Breton Giant, travelled the world performing for crowds, but never stopped longing to return to the place he loved the best: his Cape Breton home.

This book is a definitive documentation of Cape Breton-style fiddle music. Techniques specific to the style are touched on and many sets (groups of tunes - listening tunes, dance tunes, or a combination thereof - performed in a specific order) are included. Presented are the melodies, chords, and guitar tablature. 120 pages.