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| Quarry workers mouth their traditional toast |
These massive man-made pits were created and deepened as stone was yanked out for the purposes of making cement, creating some of our great greystone buildings, making gravel or any other rockin' activity.
These perilous pits speckled the isle, even in now-posh avenues such as on Ponsard, or Stanton. in Westmount.
The greatest of these was dug betwixt 1946 and 1986 and became known as the Miron Quarry which later became a dump and now seems to be a enviro-park run slightly half-heartedly by the city. It's also a target for developers who have proposed a little neighbourhood on the two square kilometer land just north of the Metropolitan.
The local newspaper reports indicate that these quarries were dangerous places where workers sometimes met their demise or flying rocks ended up killing the local citizenry. The tale of Zoe Gamache shows that people would sue each other one century ago as they do now. And the Marie-Louise Marion murder-or-suicide story (near the bottom) was also a spicy news potboiler in its day.
Montreal quarry disaster timeline
April 10, 1983: Bobby Carozzo, 13, fell nearly 100 feet when he plunged into the 250-foot-deep Francon pit. His brother Chris and Jason Carrington and Tony BSebastiano had cralwed through a hole in a fence, which had been used as a snow dump. They were searching for pigeon eggs. He suffered bruises, a broken arm and other minor injuries before falling into the snow and mud. Firefighters used ropes to raise him out.
1956 Mayor warns quarry owners. Says they're causing dust and disturbance. (Mothers protest the same in 1966, cops say dust was wrecking up 90% of local pizzas by disgustifying Saputo cheese, and more dust protest in 1980)
1955 Worker killed St Michel quarry
1953 8 year and and 6 year old playing cowboys fall into Ville St. Laurent quarry, survive.
1952 9 year old boy drowns in quarry at Laurier and Bourbonniere. Quarry should aid jobless
1932 Kid downs in quarry
1929 girl hit by flying quarry rock
1929 - quarry in Cote Des Neiges, the blasting near the cemetery is hurting monuments
1928 Five workers killed in quarry blast.
1928 Willie Pestchuk 12 drowns swimming in quarry
1927 strike at quarry, owners hire scabs.
1923 Worker's leg busted by flying hook.
1921 Rock driver 's wheel falls off, crushes his legs.
1921 Two killed in quarry explosion
1914 Little boy drowns in quarry
1913 Zoe Gamache sues city $11,000 cuz they didn't fence off quarry where he husband fell 30 feet and died
1913 Quarry atchman falls off train in bad shape
1913 Boy falls through quarry ice saved by principal
1911 Italian crushed to death in Outremont quarry
1911 Marie Louise Marion found dead in quarry, foreseen by clairvoyant, more about her, and dubbed suicide
The rue Des Carrières in Rosemont and Gilford street in the Plateau used to be the same country road.
ReplyDeleteIt is called “Des Carrières” because the Marquette park, straddling Rosemont & Bellechasse street just west of Papineau used to be a quarry, which was filled with garbage in the 1920’s (much like the Miron hole is filled nowadays).
But sometimes, that garbage can settle and shift; this is why Bellechasse street is in such a sorry state as it crosses the park; back in the 80’s, a sinkhole appeared in the park, and it took three trucks of gravel to fill it up.
It would be interesting to compile a list of quarries in Montréal; when you look here and there, you can find telltale signs, such as
ReplyDeletehere and
here, on Côte-des-Neiges, or
here, on Pine avenue.
The quarry on Cartier Ave in Pointe Claire from whence the stone for the Victoria Bridge came (now a residential neighborhood with townhomes, 1 of them occupied by The Gazette's Mike Boone)....Meloche Quarry in Kirkland at Hymus/St-Charles...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kristian and emdx
There were also quarries where present-day parks exist, for example the Martineau Quarry is where Parc Lafond is now on St. Joseph east of Blvd. St. Michel, and the northeast corner of Maisonneuve Park was Carriere Maisonneuve.
ReplyDeleteThe former Francon Quarry at the northwest corner of Jarry and Pie IX has been used as a snow-dump.
I do believe that Westmount Park was originally a quarry as well.
More such information can be gleaned from volume 11 of the "Collection Pignon sur Rue" a 13-volume series published by the City of Montreal in 1985.
See Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec #07.51.145-3 (11-85).
Quarry hunters will want to check out these handsome high-res historical maps:
ReplyDeletehttp://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/publications/pq/pq41/intro.html#map1
http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/mirage/show_image_e.php?client=mrsid2&id=119515&image=gscmap-a_1426a_b_1975_mn01.sid
http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/mirage/show_image_e.php?client=jp2&id=108780&image=gscprmap_29-1961_e_1961_mn01.sid
http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/mirage/show_image_e.php?client=jp2&id=108212&image=gscmcm_1747_e_1919_mn01.sid
The NTS topo maps at the BNQ are a handy resource too:
http://services.banq.qc.ca/sdx/cep/list_notice.xsp?field=numero_snrc&value=.*&mode=hpp&col=*
I attended Iona School decades ago and did not know there had been a quarry in the Ponsard area. Thank You!
ReplyDeleteMiron once was known as Miron et Freres, the name changed to just Miron c. 1961. Their red and orange equipment was seen at almost every job in Montreal thru the fifties and sixties.
A sidewalk superintendants dream!
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/robert_lafreniere_miron_ltd.htm
Miron also had a horse farm, the buildings painted orange and red, out towards Grenville, and once had a fleet of tugs and barges, orange and red, to haul sand from the Oka area, the sand unloaded by dragline and stored in big piles on the south side of the Lachine Canal across from Dominion Bridge in Lachine.
We used to climb up the piles as children, from where you could watch ships passing in the canal.
The sand was then trucked elsewhere.
There was another quarry to the east of Miron's, but the name of the company now escapes me.
When they were building the Metro maintenance depot on the site of the old Tramways' Youville Shops they had to dig thru old quarries full of garbage to route the subway lines up to ground level.
In the thirties there were two quarries south of Bordeaux Jail, and others on St. Denis. In that era, Montreal Tramways had an active freight operation and would haul gravel, sand and other material in their own electric side-dump and flat cars to construction locations on their system.
They would also haul steam railway freight cars of lumber, etc. on interchange with their own electric freight locomotives to merchants, some of which had their own sidings off the Tramways.
At one time the Tramways moved horses to Blue Bonnets Raceway in special horse cars.
When I was young there was a quarry to the north of the jail at St. Vincent de Paul which was worked by the prisoners, they being moved to and from the jail proper on a narrow-gauge railway to the north of the CPR.
The railway crossed Monte St. Francois at grade, the little train often spotted facing the jail just to the north of the CPR to Trois Rivieres.
Still in Laval, did not two male dancers plunge to their deaths then were missing for a few days in a quarry a while back?
Ditto a car full of teens in a quarry near Sherbrooke, this one having water in it.
The pitfalls of life, I guess.
Thank You.
A more recent death at the Miron Quarry: around 1989, several years after the city started pumping methane out of the quarry of decaying garbage, a worker in one of the pits died of methane poisoning, it is thought, touching off a long cat-and-mouse investigation of corroded piping, poor design, allegations of falsified engineering reports by municipal staff, allegations of conflict-of-interest in the public health study reports on methane in the neighbourhood and a lot of noise at City Hall and in Ville St Michel calling for the closure of the dump.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know golf clubs were used to dig them.
ReplyDeleteThe quarry to the east of Miron was the rival Francon Quarry. I believe it is still being used as a snowdump.
ReplyDeleteMiron and the City of Montreal dragged out their negotiations for their quarry's closure until the late 80s. Up until then,
there had been many complaints due to instances of noise, dust, and even errant dymamite explosions near the northwest corner which
on occasion sent chunks of limestone onto the roofs of nearby homes as well as onto the car dealership which still exists at the corner of Charland and Papineau.
On the day that Miron's landmark, red and white striped twin chimneys just north of where Jarry intersects the Metropolitain
were scheduled to be toppled over, the demolition contractor somehow misfired his detonators and one of the chimneys had to be carefully prepared for another try at a later date. I was part of the gawking crowd which had gathered in Parc Champdore at the north end to witness that end of an era.
In 1964, myself and two friends stumbled across (and fortunately not into!) the water-filled quarry which used to exist southwest of where Cote Vertu and Montpellier intersect.
Regarding the tragic deaths of the two young American visitors who had fallen into the Asfab Quarry behind the Red-Lite Club
(1755 rue de Lierre, Laval), this case is still very much a mystery.
See: http://footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com/2010/09/082205-mark-kraynak-23-and-steve-wright.html
Despite the published theories as to how this tragedy could have occurred, you have to ask yourself why these two unfortunate individuals would deliberately
run down an unfamiliar path in the dead of night unless they had been lured there (perhaps by drug dealers or prostitutes?) in or near the parking lot. Did an argument then ensue, after which they were perhaps threatened and chased to where they both plunged over a cliff they surely would not have known to exist?
Furthermore, in my mind's eye I can envisage the first guy running blindly and taking the horrific plunge before realizing what lay ahead of him, but the second guy--presumably close behind--would surely have had enough time to prevent himself from going over as well?
I still suspect foul play.
Jeez, I remember the human sewage dripping into the cheese vat story at Saputo when I was a kid. People were horrified.
ReplyDeleteVaudreuil Quarry?
ReplyDeletePeabody
Kristian You need to keep this blog updated , so we come back. Are you still alive ??
ReplyDeletePhoto of the quarry where Parc Marquette is now
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/47708296@N03/4485086031/
Yeah sorry for not posting at all. I was in a place where I simply couldn't get the internet no matter how I tried.
ReplyDeleteSome nice pics of the Martineau quarry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/47708296@N03/sets/72157625816635057/
Be sure to check out the other sets too.
My brother suggested I would possibly like this web site.
ReplyDeleteHe was totally right. This submit truly made my day. You cann't imagine just how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
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emdx: Actually des Carrieres street served the huge quarry around Rosemont and Pie IX, now part of the botanical gardens after a long controversy because of the smell of garbage for many many years when it was being filled up. Unlike many streets in Montreal, Rosemont Street did not start from the downtown expansion but from that area of the quarry. The Pie IX tram line served the workers at the quarry and was later expanded towards 11th Ave (St Michel Street) along Rosemont, and Rosemont street eventually was expanded to Papineau along with its tram line. It could go no futher towards de Fleurimont beacuse of the quarry you refer to. Sadly the Pie IX tram line needed upgrading, and with the depression it was converted to buses in the 1930's, leaving several tram lines without an eastern access to the system (eg Rosemont and Mount-Royal/Masson).
ReplyDeleteMost of these quarries (as well as some factories and the main railway system) once had a spur rail track connected to the tramway system where, in its heydays, there were also a big freight traffic in addiction to the passenger one.
ReplyDeleteMtc eventually owned 88 freight trams and 13 locomotives used to haul freight rail wagons on the system.
Then the system went in its decline era and by 1930 these cars were no longer a common vision on the tracks, and they started to be scrapped or sold to various private operators for internal use, usually the quarries and the factories where they have precedently operated (if you want names i can only say "hydro quebec").
The last "grey car" was seen in 1950, altrough some few have been retained until the end for internal use or snow plowing but all have eventually been scrapped with the exception of no 3161 saved through cornwall and two of the locomotives