In March of 1907 “one of the most valuable discoveries of mussel mud in the history of this country” was made in St. Peters Bay by “veteran mussel mud kings” Kemble Webster and Oswald Dingvell of Marie. (18) It was estimated that the deposit they discovered covered approximately eight acres and was at least 30 meters deep. This bed was a considerable find as some other mussel mud beds in other locations were only two or three feet deep. The late Walter Dingwell recalled that the last digger his father used on St. Peters Bay had a handle that was fifty feet long. (19) With mud selling for approximately one dollar per sleigh load, their deposit was estimated at about $400. (20) The mud was hauled to the shore in winter and piled to dry. From Midgell station it was loaded onto flat cars in the spring and shipped to various inland locations in the province and sometimes to New Brunswick. (21)

St. Peters Bay was considered one of the more popular sites for mussel mud digging on the Island where as many as fifty to one hundred diggers could be seen on the ice at one time. (22) In 1915 the government put considerable expense into mussel mud digging in St. Peters Bay by constructing a 420-ft railway wharf at Midgell. In 1916 there was a dredge put on St. Peters Bay by the department of public works which loaded mud directly onto the railcars.

The mud was then transported on the railway to parts of the Island that could otherwise not get fertilizer. The Journals of the House of Assembly for 1916, gave special mention to the success of the mussel mud industry in St. Peters during that year:

The mussel mud dredge at St. Peters Bay continues to do very satisfactory work. There where delivered on the wharf at Midgell 1251 ears of mud which were shipped to different points throughout the provinces. The importance of this work may be judged from the fact that at the end of the season there were over 700 applications still required. The management of the railway deserves great credit

for the extreme effort made to meet the requirements of the situation. (23)

The envy of the St. Peters industry was noticed throughout the Island. In 1917, the farmers from Cape Traverse, Augustine Cove, Tryon, and Crapaud sent a petition to the government “praying that a suitable mud digger be placed in Bedeque Bay similar to those at St. Peters Bay.” (24) The residents around the Bedeque Bay area wanted similar benefits that the mussel mud industry in St. Peters Bay had received.

A great deal of the mussel mud brought up from the Bay remained in the St. Peters Area. According to Hilda Lewis, the majority of local fEz‘ll‘mers dug mussel mud. She also remembers many farmers hauling the mud as far away as St. Margarets:

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