Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill

Mile 12.69

The pulp mill was built at Bear River in 1919 by Wallace Clarke and Willis Clarke, two brothers whose firm ran large-scale sawmill, logging and shipping operations in the Bear River watershed.(1) Their pulp mill was built at the east end of the Bear River Bridge on both sides of the DAR mainline with an overhead conveyor crossing the tracks and was served by a spur at Mile 12.69.The mill opened in May 1921 but proved a financial disaster when it went into receivership in 1923 and closed in 1924, losing over a million dollars of local investment.(2) The tallest building in the mill complex was adapted for other uses and survived as a prominent ruin beside the bridge until the late 1980s.(3)

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  Artist's rendering of Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill beside the Bear River Bridge, circa 1919.

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  Bear River Bridge with the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill in background, Aug. 31, 1920.

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  A postcard of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill at Bear River soon after it opened, circa 1921.

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  Train No. 95 pulled by Locomotive No. 2552 crossing the Bear River Bridge with the ruins of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill to left, circa 1950.

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  The Bear River Bridge with ruins of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill in the background, Dec. 1950.

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  Bear River Bridge, looking west with the former Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill in foreground, Summer 1960.

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  Bridge in 1960s showing ruins of Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill.

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  Swing bridge over the Bear River at Bear River, NS August 5, 1973 with ruins of Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill.

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  Bear River, looking east by the ruins of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill, April 1986.

References

(1) "History of Bear River", Welcome to Bear River

(2) Mike Parker, Buried in the Woods: Sawmill Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press (2010), pages 78-81.

(3) David Othen's July 6, 1987 photo of the Bear River Bridge is the last known published photo of the Clarke Brothers Mill, indicating that it was demolished soon after. David Othen, Dominion Atlantic Railway The Final 25 Years, page 38.