At the entrance to each mine stood a deckhead of the type shown in this picture. Here the ore was put through an initial process of refinement. The construction of deckheads and, more generally, the running of a large-scale mining operation required great engineering skill - more than could be found in a pre-industrial society like Newfoundland. Generally speaking, the top managerial group on Bell Island was recruited outside Newfoundland and stood apart in the town. In the latter years of the mining operation it was closely identified with an area of the Island known locally as "snob hill." Since the skills of the Newfoundlander and the Conception Bayman were those of the sea, a number of the skilled workers and tradesmen employed in the operation also came from "away'', though in time Bell Island developed a highly competent indigenous work force. Yet if the outport men were found more in the lower reaches of the industrial hierarchy, they were, nevertheless, essential to its integrity. In 1901, 1,268 out of 1,320 people living on the Island were Newfoundland born; the equivalent figures for 1921 were 4,282 and 4,357 respectively.
