Springhill Remembers Through Lamp Cabin Park

Springhill will pause to remember its coal mining heritage at noon on Thursday, June 6, 2024, when a park is unveiled on the site of the former Lamp Cabin building near the pitheads to the Number 2 and Number 4 mines.

The Lamp Cabin Memorial Park includes interpretive signage detailing the history of the site and mining in Springhill, a sign in tribute to the women of Springhill, a brick planter, a walking trail, benches and accessible picnic tables.

The estimated cost of $17,535 was funded by the estate of the late Dr. Dorothy Saffron, a Springhill native who went on to practice as a psychiatrist in New York. 

The former Lamp Cabin structure on Miners Memorial Drive was demolished in 2020 after falling into disrepair.

The Mayor of Cumberland says, “The site of the former Lamp Cabin building was known in Springhill as the last walk.” Murray Scott added, “The miners would come into the building as they headed off to their day or night of work in the mines. They would exchange their street gear for their underground gear and come back when their shift was over.”  The mayor emphasised, “For those who lost their lives underground they never came back.”

The unveiling was originally scheduled to occur last October on the 65th anniversary of the “1958 Bump” that ended large scale mining in Springhill, but had to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. 

The park is a memorial to all the miners who worked and lost their lives in the major disasters of 1891, 1956, and 1958 as well as the wives who kept vigil at the pitheads awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones. 

The Bump in October 1958 killed 75 miners, occurring just two years after a mine explosion in 1956 killed 39 miners. The 1891 explosion killed 125 men and boys. 

In total, approximately 440 miners lost their lives in Springhill’s coal mines between 1876 and 1969

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