SCHEFFERVILLE, Que. — I read your article (‘Labrador fossils hint at warmer weather in region's past’, Aug. 4 edition, The Labrador Voice) with more than a little bit of interest because I have known about the fossilized tropical plants found at Redmond Mine No. 1 since I was a little kid.
My father, John B. Stubbins, was chief mining engineer for IOC at the time these fossils were discovered. My father, if I remember correctly, was the first qualified person called to the site when it was first discovered in 1957 by shovel operators.
My father was a geological engineer, graduate of Queens. He was one of the pioneers who help develop the iron mines in Schefferville doing geological surveys during WW2.
He worked for Labrador Mining before being transferred to IOC. He then returned to Labrador Mining in 1965 until his retirement in the late 1980s.
He made frequent yearly trips to both Schefferville and Labrador City. The iron mines in Labrador were the focus of his entire mining career.
He fully understood the significance of these fossils and their meaning. Unfortunately he passed away in 2001 so I do not know if he wrote anything on the discovery of these fossils but he most likely did.
I have vivid memories of the many samples my father had in his office. On Sundays, my father would take me to his office and I would spray shellac on all of these fossils to keep them from drying up. I remember fossils of ferns leaves and petrified wood.
Sadly I do not know what happened to all of his excellent samples.
That is why I have never accepted the current nonsense about global warming because the rocks tell us the world has warmed and cooled thousands of times in its multi-billion year existence.
William Stubbins
