Dominion, Nova Scotia
| Dominion | |
|---|---|
 Dominion
|
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| Coordinates: 46°12′37″N 60°01′30″W / 46.21028°N 60.02500°WCoordinates: 46°12′37″N 60°01′30″W / 46.21028°N 60.02500°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Provinces of Canada | Nova Scotia |
| Regional Municipality | Cape Breton Regional Municipality |
| Incorporated Town | 1906 |
| Dissolved | August 1, 1995 |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 1,953 |
| • Change (2006-11) |
 8.5% |
| Time zone | AST (UTC-4) |
| • Summer (DST) | ADT (UTC-3) |
| Canadian Postal code | B1G |
| Area code(s) | 902 |
| Telephone Exchange | 849 |
Dominion is an unincorporated community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality. It is located immediately west of the larger centre of Glace Bay.
Founded in 1906, Dominion got its name from the local Dominion Coal Company and owed its birth to the coal mining industry as did many of the local communities. Coal was king, and remnants of many old mine workings still run under the town. The local high school, MacDonald High, sank slightly into one of these mine workings and had to be subsequently torn down.
In the eighteenth century, Dominion was part of a larger area called L’Indienne (Anglicized to “Lingan”). The area was inhabited by fishermen and farmers from Acadia and the Basque Country of France and Spain. During the New England and British occupation of Louisbourg in the late 1740s, Baie de L’Indienne (Indian Bay) harboured small boats called shallops which carried coal from the mine at Table Head (part of modern-day Glace Bay) to waiting coal vessels to supply the garrison at Louisbourg.
In May 1748, 120 French and Indians surprised and took the schooner Glover, sloop Ellinwood, seven shallops that were employed in loading coal vessels, and “seven soldiers that happened to be there upon Some Business of their own & without arms.” The following day, the raiding party unsuccessfully advanced on the blockhouse fort (Fort William) under construction at Table Head that was to protect the colliery. After this incident, the government at Louisbourg kept an armed vessel moored constantly in Indian Bay for the protection of the coal vessels until the construction of the blockhouse fort was completed.
Besides the capture of the coal vessels and English soldiers at L’Indienne in 1748, the same year the community at L’Indienne was destroyed when several of the presumably French inhabitants took the British Oath of Allegiance against the wishes of their neighbours.
In the nineteenth century, the community on the south side of Indian Bay became known as “Bridgeport,” named after a descendant of one of the owners of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the English jewellery firm that formed the General Mining Association (G.M.A.) in 1827. When the Town of Dominion was incorporated in 1906, the area became known officially as Dominion and unofficially as Old Bridgeport; Bridgeport was reduced to a small border section between the towns of Dominion and Glace Bay.
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