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Tilt Cove
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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Twice in the past 120 years - from 1864 to 1917 and from 1957 to 1967 - the bustle of copper mining has enlivened the community of Tilt Cove. The traditional story regarding the discovery of the Tilt Cove copper deposits related that as a prospector named Smith McKay explored the area in 1857 he noticed that a fisherman, Mr. Isaac Winsor, was using a heavy metallic rock for ballast in his boat. Mr. Winsor was able to show the prospector a deposit of copper that led to the mine beginning operation in 1864.

As with other early Newfoundland mines, the first Tilt Cove miners came from Cornwall, Wales and the mining techniques closely resembled those of the Cornish mines. Cable or "Swansea" Cars carried the ore down from the mine site along a tramway to a two storied pier where vessels waited to take the ore to the copper smelters in Swansea, Wales.

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Birds eye view....
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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First Settlers
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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First settlers
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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Trimway
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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Tilt Cove
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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Tilt Cove in the 1890's, in the upper left the blasting furnaces can be seen, these furnaces were installed in 1889 and ran on imported welsh coal. This meant that copper could now be smelted on site rather than having to ship to the Swansea smelter in England. The foundry is also visible in the upper left (white stack), where imported iron was manufactured into steel products for use in the mining operations. Just under the foundry was the old cobing house (white building) where young boys and men hand cobbed ore before it was placed on a tramway for shipment to the docks.

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Tilt Cove (Regatta)
1890
Tilt Cove, NL

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The annual Tilt Cove regatta in the late 1890's. This local sporting event was held from the late 1890's till 1912 on Winser lake, a lake in the town named after its founder, Isaac Winser. In the center of the picture, near the lake, tents belonging to young prospectors can be seen and in the lower right the residence of Mr. Mackinnon, the doctor, can be seen. A Company doctor serviced Tilt Cove from 1869 till 1917 and 1957 till 1967, an earlier attempt at bringing in a doctor in 1867 was a failure as the doctor was transported aboard the ill fated Queen of Swansea which sank, 12 miles from its destination, on Gull Island.

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Early mining at Tilt Cove
1870
Tilt Cove, NL

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Hudson Cart
1900
Tilt Cove, NL

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Motif Stamp
1897
Tilt Cove, NL

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Remains of Building
1960
Tilt Cove, NL