Coal in our Blood
200 Years of Coal Mining in Nova Scotia's Pictou County
by Judith Hoegg Ryan
An intimate portrait of a working-class community and the unique hardships of life in a mining town.
For almost 200 years, coal miners in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, worked the rich coal deposits in the region. Coal in Our Blood tells the story of the industry and the dedicated men who undertook this dangerous, demanding and dirty work.
Author Judith Hoegg Ryan, a historian and the daughter of a Pictou County miner, weaves together the stories of these men, chronicling the boom times of prosperity as well as the disasters that befell these tight-knit communities. Accompanying her text are photographs from miners’ family albums and archives.
Originally published just months after the Westray mine disaster that killed 26 miners in an underground explosion, Coal in Our Blood is being brought back into print with an updated layout and photos more than thirty years later.



