TRANSPORTATION OF MALAGASH SALT

From 1918 until 1927 when the railway was built to the mine, all salt was moved by horses to Malagash C. N. station.

In winter sleds were used and the spring of the year presented the greatest problem, when heavy wagons sank to the axles. Some of the heavy burlap sacks carried 200 pounds of salt.

In spring when demand for fish salt was greatest, it was common for a wagon to become mired, and the sacks would be unloaded in the mud and manhandled forward and unloaded.

Salesman, Bill Fillmore, recalls that some of the sacks were a mess when the customer received them.

However, this era produced fine draft horses in Malagash, but the horse era passed when the railway was completed for the 1927 business.

Mr. Chambers purchased a Kelly truck; a war unit with chain drive and solid rubber tires. In 1928, the company purchased a 600 net ton Steamer, The Clyde Valley in England.

Water Transporation

Customers from the Magdalen Islands, St. Pierre and Newfoundland had their schooners call at Malagash for salt. They varied in size from 60 to 200 tons and brought both bulk and salt in jute sacks. The Red River Boats moved 3,600 ton cargoes up the St. Lawrence to paper mills and the company's vessel, the Clyde Valley lifted 600 tons each trip.

(Taken from the book 'Malagash Salt', first published in 1975)