09/06/2026
An exciting new display is now ready for viewing at the Kentville Heritage Centre! It centres around the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and the Relief Train sent from the DAR Headquarters in Kentville.
On December 6, 1917, a mu*****ns ship, the Mont Blanc, and another ship, The Imu, collided in the Narrows of Halifax Harbour. Twenty minutes later, at 9:04 am, the mu*****ns ship, the Mont Blanc, blew up in the Harbour. Nearly 2,000 people died and some 9,000 were injured.
The connection between this explosion and the Dominion Atlantic Railway headquarters is still remembered. However, it was the recent dredging of the Halifax Harbour when pieces of the mu*****ns ship, the Mont Blanc, were brought to the surface! These activities brought the connection with Kentville to light once again. Pieces of the Mont Blanc became available to museums in N.S. and our Heritage Centre applied and were successfully granted a piece of the Mont Blanc for display at our Centre.
Here is some background relating to the DAR Relief Train out of Kentville on that fateful day in December of 1917, taken from a column in the Advertiser written by Ed Coleman in December, 2024.
He wrote that…”when the explosion occurred, the railway car with the DAR’s General Manager, George E. Graham, aboard, was parked in the Halifax North Street Station. Graham and his family had stayed overnight and were having breakfast in the railway car at the time. Quickly assessing the situation, Graham walked to the nearest station in Rockingham, several miles away. Upon arriving, he ordered a Relief Train to be made up in Kentville.
As a result of Graham’s call to Kentville, medical staff in the Town and Camp Aldershot were mobilized. The train relief train left Kentville at 11 am, carrying doctors, nurses, medical supplies and rescue equipment from several Annapolis Valley towns along the way. It only got as far as Rockingham because of the track being torn up from the explosion.” This Relief train from Kentville was the first outside train to reach Halifax with help.
A big thank you to Kaitlyn Coole, our Summer Student, who did extensive research and complied an Information Binder that tells this story in detail, and to Fred Huntley, a member of the Middleton Railway Museum, who created a diorama of the arrival of the first Relief Train for our display. Their contributions are very much appreciated! Our Heritage Centre is open until October 10th, so come visit us before we close for the season!
