It will be a couple of years before any gold is taken from the ground at Valentine Lake near Buchans, in central Newfoundland. For those who invested money ...
The Marathon Gold site at Valentine Lake in central Newfoundland. - File PhotoIt will be a couple of years before any gold is taken from the ground at Valentine Lake near Buchans, in central Newfoundland.
So if Marathon had already secured all the necessary permits from the province to move forward with the Valentine Lake project, why did they have to do a deal with a private family-owned company? An American syndicate had started the job in 1881 but began to run out of money the following year. By 1884 that company, the Newfoundland Railway Co.Ltd., was bankrupt with just 84 miles of track laid from St. John’s to Harbour Grace.
Prowse wrote enthusiastically of the railway construction, and Reid, saying, “Mr. Reid has fulfilled all his obligations with the utmost honour and punctuality; his able and energetic sons W.D. Reid and Harry Reid are universal favourites with the labourers on the line; the men are well treated good, honest work has been done on the new line…”
Five years later, the government inked another deal with Reid, an agreement that would give him even more land through his recently-incorporated company Reid Newfoundland Railway Co. Ltd. In 1910 newly-minted premier William Morris decided the island needed six branch lines, to connect rural places like Bonavista, Bonne Bay, Trepassy, Heart’s Content and Fortune Bay to the main cross-island line.The contracts meant much-needed revenue for the Reid Company, which was now struggling financially. The railway business had not been as profitable as predicted.