Above we see the old Coffey House.. Miner's lived here while working the Crow's Nest goldmine in late 1800s.
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The abandoned Crow's Nest gold mine is the longest known in Nova Scotia! Extreme caution is recommended in exploring this hazardous area. Some mine shafts (open cuts) go straight down. Some are marked with warning signs and some aren't. Use a staff or canoe paddle to test before you step, don't enter the shafts, & don't go alone!

Explore this mine complex safely by watching a remarkable two-part video series made recently by experienced mine hunters. See Crow's Nest Part One & Crow's Nest Part Two. Each is about 23 minutes in length, so sit back and prepare to be astonished by what you see.
 
The Crows Nest area has long been home to black bears. Keep this in mind in winter & spring as bears may hibernate in these mine shafts!

Shafted at the Crow's Nest goldmine. 2016

Closed for season. 2016

Caution! Close enough!
​Another Crow's Nest goldmine shaft. 2016.

On the main branch near Cochrane Hill.
Latitude:45°15'0.54"
Longitude:-62°2'54.93"
Estimated 116 m above sea level.

Entrance to Crow's Nest Goldmine(1891)

The Coffey House, St. Mary’s River, Nova Scotia, Canada
 
Cochrane Hill is the pinnacle of a lovely drive from Sherbrook to the village of Melrose. In 1877 gold fever arrived at Cochrane Hill.
 
Many miners came for the work and extra housing was needed for these workers.  During the gold digging days of Cochrane Hill a beautiful house was built on the east side and on the lower banks of the St. Mary’s River. The location of this previously standing three-story dwelling, from the Waternish road view, is directly across from the cabin known as the Bells of St. Mary’s today, now owned by the Harpell family.
 
Access to the Coffey House, as it became known, can be reached either from a road off Route 348 or by river. I followed the road back a few years ago and it was a difficult journey at best. This, no doubt, would have been the main access to the Coffey House and was then much more pleasing to the traveller than it is today.
 
The proprietor of the Coffey House was Rebecca Fraser, first daughter of Hugh R. Fraser and Elizabeth Ann (MacDaniel) Fraser. Rebecca was born August 8, 1858, and grew up on the family farm in Waternish.  She married James Coffey on November 22, 1881, at Amherst, Nova Scotia.  His occupation was listed as clerk.  By 1891 Rebecca was listed as a widow, living with James’ family.  By 1901 she had relocated to her parent’s farm and it is believed at about the time she became proprietor of the Coffey House that would have been a wee distance downstream from her
parents farm.
 
Working to keep the daily chores on track would not have been for the weak.  Her days would have started at daybreak or before, a hearty breakfast prepared for the miners, lunch boxes filled for the day in the mines, and dinner to be prepared for the main meal of the day and I am sure a bed lunch came after. She’d have dishes to be washed, pots to be scrubbed, baking, daily cleaning of the establishment and doing laundry as required.  Regardless of how we see it today, I’m sure many memories were made that regretfully were not recorded.
 
During my time seeking information on the Coffey House I spoke with a number of elderly folks in the area. One story that amused me was from the late Muriel MacKeen of Aspen. I often recall it, hearing her voice and hearty laugh at the end.
 
Several years later, after the Coffey House had disappeared, Muriel and a friend went there to pick blueberries. According to Muriel the largest blueberries in all of Guysborough County grew here.  However, there was a problem.  Above the voice sounds of these two ladies catching up on the gossip of the day a swishing sound could be heard.  Eventually one stood up from picking and witnessed the largest black snakes skimming across the blueberry patch on their way to the open mine pits.  As forklore has it, snakes guard the entrance to mines where gold can be found.
 
Mrs. Rebecca (Fraser) Coffey passed away in February, 1924. At the time of her death she was living at the Crow’s Nest Hotel, across the river from the Coffey House.  Rebecca was laid to rest in the Glenelg Cemetery, located off the Lead Mine Rd. near Danny Kirk’s home and blueberry fields, on the knoll of a hill beside the tranquil waters of the St. Mary’s River.
 
RIP dear Rebecca.
 
Brenda Carpan, Stillwater, 2018