Renfrew Ghost Town - Hants County, Nova Scotia - Ghost Towns on Waymarking.com

In 1860 Renfrew, Hants County, Nova Scotia was an unnamed district of Nine Mile River where a few families thought that they could make a living on farming and logging. Little did they know in the coming years they would become millionaires. At the height of the Renfrew Gold Rush over 700 citizens lived and worked in Renfrew and the value of the gold extracted from the quartz would be over $20,000,000.00 in today's dollars.

On April 29, 1862 Renfrew was proclaimed a Gold District. The early prospectors worked near the brook, digging surface gold or cutting deep trenches, often using explosives to blast the shale and quartz. (It was not until 1867 that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, which was used later at Renfrew in blasting.)

The common method was to find a vein containing gold, frequently near the surface, then follow it by trenching or by blasting down as far as possible.

Processing methods in the early years was very wasteful. An estimated 30% of the gold was frequently left behind in the tailings. Often when the gold was brought to the surface, water was splashed on it and only if gold showed was the rock sent to the crushers! There are thousands of ounces of gold still hidden in the hundreds of mounds of minestone scattered throughout Renfrew. I found a large chuck of quartz with some gold in it when I was scouting the area. It is easy to find pieces of quartz with gold in them!

When visiting Renfrew, be careful particularly with children and pets - there are open pits in the area.

And as hard as it is to believe today, at its height Renfrew was complete with homes, hotel, supply store, and post office!

The story of the area is recorded in Renfrew Gold: The Story of a Nova Scotia Ghost Town by John Hawkins. (Publisher: Lancelot Press, 1995)