Wabana is a Canadian town and the largest, and only incorporated, community on Bell Island in the province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

Geography

The town is situated on the northeast end of the island and was incorporated in 1950. Bell Island's soil contains red

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

(or iron ore); this resource was the main reason for Wabana's development. In addition to Wabana centre, the municipality consists of three more neighbourhoods, namely West Mines to the west, The Green to the north and The Front (or Bell Island Front) to the southeast, near the ferry terminal.

Economy

Wabana came to prominence during the 1890s when the Butler family from Port de Grave staked mining claims on the north side of the island. These were sold to the Nova Scotia Steel Company and later sold to the Dominion Steel Corporation in the early 1900s. The first mine opened in 1896 and the site of the mines was named ''Wabana'' by Thomas Cantly, an official with Nova Scotia Steel Co. – the name being

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

for "place where the light shines first." The mines saw Wabana's population swell to 14,000 within a few years, the second largest community in the Dominion of Newfoundland. A hundred and one workers lost their lives over the course of Bell Island's iron ore industry. A further 65 sailors on merchant ships were lost on two separate attacks by German

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s in the fall of 1942; further, four cargo ships for carrying iron ore to the steel mill at

Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...

sunk. Wabana's population declined following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as the underground mines began to face shortfalls in production, being forced to compete with more efficient open pit mines in

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The parent company, Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO), had been in operation since 1930 and was taken over by other conglomerates in the late 1950s. The steel mill and coal mines in Nova Scotia were facing uncertain futures and their shut down was announced in 1965 (although they were subsequently nationalized). The expected announcement of the shut down of the iron ore mines in Wabana came on April 19, 1966. Following their closure, the mines were left to flood and the population of Wabana has since steadily declined. Today, the working population mostly commutes to St. John's on a daily basis, while in the summer a tour of one of the decommissioned mines draws tourism to the island. The island is served by the provincial government ferry system, via the and . Wabana houses the island's post office, a supermarket, a gas station, and several convenience stores.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Wabana had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of −15.4% from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

* Allan Hawco * David Brazil (politician) * David Jackman (politician) * Harry Hibbs (musician)

References

{{Authority control Populated coastal places in Canada Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Road-inaccessible communities of Newfoundland and Labrador Mining communities in Newfoundland and Labrador