Horses were used extensively for many years in the Bell Island mines. By 1914 these horses and their teamsters had helped transform the Island into a boom town and one of the brighest spots in the Newfoundland economy. Between 1896 and 1905 the average annual production of the mines was 411,750 long tons. Between 1906 and 1915 this figure was more than doubled to 974,449. But the start of the Great War reversed this trend overnight; the Scotia Company, which had its major market in Germany, closed its works and the Dominion Company reduced its work force by about seventy-five percent. There was an economic recovery on the Island later in the War but the immediate post-war period saw another sudden collapse. A brief period of recovery was followed by yet another downfall when France occupied the Ruhr in 1923. For the period 1916-1925 the annual production of the mines averaged 760,403 long tons, considerably less than what had been achieved in the boom prewar period.
