Kennetcook in Nova Scotia
Kennetcook is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants. Also see adjacent community of Upper Kennetcook.
Kennetcook is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants. Also see adjacent community of Upper Kennetcook.
The village takes its name from the Kennetcook River which is believed to come from a Mi'kmaq word meaning "The Place Further Ahead or The Place Nearby". [1] The river was an important east-west canoe and portage route for the Mi'kmaq people connecting the Piziquid (Windsor) area with the canoe routes and settlement areas along the Shubenacadie River. A trail from Halifax to the Acadian settlements at Noel on the Minas Basin crossed the Kennetcook River at a ford near the site of the village, making it an early crossroads. [2]
After the American Revolution, the village was part of the Douglas Township, which was named after Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet. The village was settled by the troops of the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) for their service in the war, protecting Nova Scotia from ongoing American Patriot attacks by land and sea.
Joseph Salter, the noted shipbuilder and first mayor of Moncton, New Brunswick, was born in Kennetcook in 1816.
In 1901, the Midland Railway was built through the village enhancing the crossroads as a retail and service centre for the area. Kennetcook grew to host a hotel by the station, a bank and several stores. The Midland was acquired by the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1905 and later by the Canadian Pacific which added further rail traffic as well as shipping farm products and lumber from Kennetcook through connections to Windsor and Truro. Highway construction after World War Two undermine railway traffic leading to the end of passenger and regular freight service in 1979 and removal of the railway in 1983. [3]
A covered bridge spanned the Kennetcook River until 1967. This was the last covered bridge in Nova Scotia. [4]
Currently, efforts are underway to revitalize the downtown through development and implementation of an economic development plan. [5] This development plan will include the construction of an amphitheatre, multi-purpose center, commercial development space and the re-construction of the covered bridge. Kennetcook was also known for its Douglas Township celebration every year.
The "Father of Canadian Poetry" Sir Charles G.D. Roberts wrote a fictional story that was set just before the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755). The story is an account of a Mi'kmaq raid on British settlers in Kennetcook entitled "Raid on Kennetcook" (alternatively titled "Raid from Beauséjour"). Roberts wrote the story in 1894 while he worked at University of King's College, which was then located in Windsor, Nova Scotia.
In 1953, the noted Canadian poet Alden Nowlan graduated from the Folk School located in the Kennetcook Hotel (present-day Law Office).
The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the Bay of Fundy. Statistics Canada defines the Annapolis Valley as an economic region, composed of Annapolis County, Kings County, and Hants County.
Hants County is an historical county and census division of Nova Scotia, Canada. Local government is provided by the West Hants Regional Municipality, and the Municipality of the District of East Hants.
Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Highway 101.
The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America.
Annapolis Royal, formerly known as Port Royal, is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
East Hants, officially named the Municipality of the District of East Hants, is a district municipality in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Statistics Canada classifies the district municipality as a municipal district.
Grand-Pré is a Canadian rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and the community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers. The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. On June 30, 2012, the Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Brooklyn is a Canadian rural community located in western Hants County, Nova Scotia with a population of 916 people in 2016.
The Kennetcook River is a river that flows through Hants County, Nova Scotia. From headwaters near the mouth of the Shubenacadie River, the Kennetcook traverses about 45 kilometres of mostly rural terrain, discharging into the Avon River at Windsor. The Kennetcook cuts through fossiliferous limestone rocks for part of its length. A tidal river near its mouth, the Kennetcook experiences a tidal bore which may be seen at Scotch Village. It is a known salmon river popular with anglers.
The St. Croix River is a river in Nova Scotia entirely contained in Hants and Halifax Counties. Its headwaters are Panuke Lake. The river has been exploited for water power. There were water mills in the nineteenth century and in the 1930s three hydroelectric dams were built; they still operate.
St. Croix is a community in the province of Nova Scotia Canada, located in Hants County, Nova Scotia.
Stanley is a community located in the East Hants municipal district, Hants County, Nova Scotia. Stanley is most famous as the birthplace of the acclaimed Canadian poet Alden Nowlan.
South Maitland is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants, Hants County, Nova Scotia. The community was one of the stops on the Shubenacadie Canal system and the site of a number of 19th century shipyards including the yard that built the barque Calburga in 1890, the last large square rigger to sail under a Canadian flag. The village is best known for the historic bridge built over the Shubenacadie River, a large bridge built over challenging tidal waters by the Midland Railway, part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1901. Demolished in the 1990s, a surviving abutment of the railway bridge was retrofitted in 2006 by the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Centre at South Maitland as an interpretive lookoff and walking trail showcasing the massive tides of the Shubenacadie River. A former railway caboose is also preserved beside the interpretive tail.
Scotch Village is an unincorporated community on the Kennetcook River in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of West Hants. This area was part of Newport Township at the time of settlement primarily by Rhode Island Planters in the early 1760s. It was referred to as “Scotchman’s Dyke” or “Scotch Village”, due to settlement of early families of Scottish descent. Prior to the arrival of the Planters, Scotch Village had been the home of Mi'kmaq and Acadians.
Pisiguit is the pre-expulsion-period Acadian region located along the banks of the Pisiquit River from its confluence with the Minas Basin of Acadia, which is now Nova Scotia, including the St. Croix River drainage area. Settlement in the region commenced simultaneous to the establishment of Grand-Pré. Many villages spread rapidly eastward along the river banks. These settlements became known as Pisiguit or. The name is from the Mi'kmaq Pesaquid, meaning "Junction of Waters". In 1714, there were 351 people there.
Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British officer Charles Lawrence and New England Ranger John Gorham. On the other side, Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre led the Mi'kmaq and the Acadia militia in guerrilla warfare against settlers and British forces. At the outbreak of the war there were an estimated 2500 Mi'kmaq and 12,000 Acadians in the region.
Nova Scotia is a Canadian province located in Canada's Maritimes. The region was initially occupied by Mi'kmaq. The colonial history of Nova Scotia includes the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces and the northern part of Maine, all of which were at one time part of Nova Scotia. In 1763 Cape Breton Island and St. John's Island became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island became a separate colony. Nova Scotia included present-day New Brunswick until that province was established in 1784. During the first 150 years of European settlement, the colony was primarily made up of Catholic Acadians, Maliseet and Mi'kmaq. During the latter seventy-five years of this time period, there were six colonial wars that took place in Nova Scotia. After agreeing to several peace treaties, this long period of warfare ended with the Halifax Treaties (1761) and two years later when the British defeated the French in North America (1763). During these wars, Acadians, Mi'kmaq and Maliseet from the region fought to protect the border of Acadia from New England. They fought the war on two fronts: the southern border of Acadia, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine. The other front was in Nova Scotia and involved preventing New Englanders from taking the capital of Acadia, Port Royal, establishing themselves at Canso.
Midland Railway was a Nova Scotian railway company formed in 1896 to build a railway through Hants County, Nova Scotia, connecting Truro to Windsor. Completed in 1901, it operated independently until 1905 when it became part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway and later the Canadian Pacific Railway, until the line closed in 1983.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Nova Scotia:
The military history of the Mi'kmaq consisted primarily of Mi'kmaq warriors (smáknisk) who participated in wars against the English independently as well as in coordination with the Acadian militia and French royal forces. The Mi'kmaq militias remained an effective force for over 75 years before the Halifax Treaties were signed (1760–1761). In the nineteenth century, the Mi'kmaq "boasted" that, in their contest with the British, the Mi'kmaq "killed more men than they lost". In 1753, Charles Morris stated that the Mi'kmaq have the advantage of "no settlement or place of abode, but wandering from place to place in unknown and, therefore, inaccessible woods, is so great that it has hitherto rendered all attempts to surprise them ineffectual". Leadership on both sides of the conflict employed standard colonial warfare, which included scalping non-combatants. After some engagements against the British during the American Revolutionary War, the militias were dormant throughout the nineteenth century, while the Mi'kmaq people used diplomatic efforts to have the local authorities honour the treaties. After confederation, Mi'kmaq warriors eventually joined Canada's war efforts in World War I and World War II. The most well-known colonial leaders of these militias were Chief (Sakamaw) Jean-Baptiste Cope and Chief Étienne Bâtard.