SYDNEY MINES HERITAGE
eMUSEUM

Steel Plant

The fall of the Sydney mines Steel Plant began with the end of the First World War. The British Empire Steel Company (BESCO) formed in 1918 and from the beginning was an economic failure. The post WWI years were marked with disputes and strikes.

Although equipped with a new and modern blast furnace, the Sydney Mines steel plant was shut down, never to reopen and in 1921 officially closed down entirely.

This was a hard and critical blow to the town of Sydney Mines, its people, its businesses, and the economy in general. Many of the workers had little or no choice but to pull up stakes and move their families elsewhere. Many went to the United States, to places such as California and Maryland, and others moved to Ontario cities.

Most of the plant was dismantled and sent to Sydney and some of the machinery was sent to Quebec. The stacks, which were made of thousands of bricks, were dynamited, leaving nothing but a pile of sand. Why this steel plant was allowed to fall into ruin, only the officials know!

Thus ended an era in Sydney Mines which will never be repeated, from a thriving boom town to a ghost town overnight.