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 (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

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 and this resource was the main reason for Wabana's development.

Economy

Wabana came to prominence during the 1890s when the Butler family from

Port de Grave Port de Grave is a peninsula on Conception Bay (CB) in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The peninsula contains the communities of Bareneed, Black Duck Pond, Otterbury, Ship Cove, Blow Me Down, Hibb's Cove, Pick Eyes, and Hussey's Cove with a ...

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 an Indigenous peoples 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 predom ...

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. 101 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s in the fall of 1942 which saw 4 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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. The parent company,

Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...

(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 .

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), 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 cultur ...

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

Notable people

Allan Hawco Allan Hawco is a Canadian writer, actor, and producer from Bell Island, Newfoundland. He is best known for his roles in the series ''Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan'', ''Republic of Doyle'', and '' The Book of Negroes'', and the television limited series ...

David Brazil (politician) David J. Brazil ( ; born September 20, 1963) is a Canadian politician from Newfoundland and Labrador. He has represented the district of Conception Bay East - Bell Island in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly since 2010. He is curre ...

* David Jackman (politician) *

Harry Hibbs (musician) Harry Hibbs (September 11, 1942December 21, 1989) was Newfoundland's best-known icon for traditional Newfoundland music. He was born Henry Thomas Joseph Hibbs, September 11, 1942 on Bell Island, Dominion of Newfoundland. He was educated at S ...

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