Glace Bay

Glace Bay is a community of 19,000 people (2011) on Cape Breton Island, on the coast east of Sydney.

History
As early as the 1720s the French inhabited the area to supply Fortress of Louisbourg with coal. They named the location baie de Glace (literally, Ice Bay) because of the sea ice which filled the ocean each winter. In 1748, after the capture of Fortress Louisbourg, the British constructed Fort William at Table Head in order to protect a mine that produced coal to supply the Louisbourg garrison. The fort was a blockhouse, brought from Boston, with a palisade. When Cape Breton Island was returned to French control, Fort William continued in service until 1752 when it was destroyed by fire.

More permanent settlement of Glace Bay probably can be dated from 1818 when Walter Blackett obtained a grant of land on the south side of the Bay. Coal mining existed on a small scale until the 1860s. In 1861 a total of 12 mines in Glace Bay were in operation. Following the formation of the Dominion Coal Company in 1893, the coal mining industry expanded significantly in what was to become Glace Bay with the opening of several new mines. At its high point the company was responsible for 40% of Canada's coal production. Glace Bay's extensive coal and rail operations made the town the industrial centre of Cape Breton. Small communities grew up around the mines and by the 1940s, the population of the area exceeded 28,000. None of the 12 collieries remain. The industrial decline resulted in the core population falling to 17,000 in 2001.

Fishing was also an important industry throughout the 20th century. However, by the 1990s fish stocks were so depleted that the fishery was closed. Some fish processing still occurs here.

Climate
Glace Bay experiences a cool summer, and windy, wet and stormy winter. August is the hottest month in Glace Bay, and February is the coldest month on average.

Get in

 * By car: Glace Bay is 20 km east of Sydney on Highway 4.
 * By bus: Transit Cape Breton Route 1 travels from Sydney M-Sa, usually hourly (45 min, $5). Route 14 runs the same route 4 times on Sunday.
 * By plane: via Halifax. J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport (YQY), a regional airport, is the closest airport but flights to Sydney were suspended indefinitely in Jan 2021.

Sleep
There are no hotels in Glace Bay. There are accommodations 21 km to the west in Sydney (Nova Scotia).