McNabs Island (formerly Cornwallis Island) is the largest island in Halifax Harbour located in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It played a major role in defending Halifax Harbour and is now a provincial park. The island was settled by Britons in the 1750s and later by Peter McNab, and McNab family members lived on the island until 1934. [1]
The island saw seasonal Mi'kmaq and Acadian use and was surveyed by the French Navy as a possible site for a fortified seaport prior to the selection of Louisbourg. After the founding of Halifax in 1749, it was first known as Cornwallis Island. One of the early settlers was Joseph Rous (1758), brother of John Rous. [2] [3] Halifax merchant Joshua Mauger used the long beach which still bears his name as a base for a fishing operation in the 1750s and 1760s. [4]
In the 1780s, the island was purchased by Peter McNab (d. 1799, buried at Old Burying Ground), beginning a long settlement by generations of the McNab family on the island. McNab's son, Captain John McNab of the Nova Scotia Fencibles, lived with his daughter Catherine Susan Ann McNabb on McNabs Island. She married Joseph Howe on February 2, 1828. [5]
McNabs Island is populated by many military fortifications belonging to the "Halifax Defence Complex" including Fort Ives, Fort Hugonin, Sherbrooke Tower, Fort McNab, and Strawberry Battery. Important historic features on McNabs Island which are still visible include the foundations of several houses built by early settlers, an aboriginal shell midden, a cemetery containing some of the island's earliest residents, remains of a turn-of-the-century picnic ground and soda pop factory, and remnants of a once-extensive Victorian garden. Other historic sites include the original McNab house, Martello Tower, and the main burial site of cholera victims from the SS England.
Maugher Beach, where a lighthouse stands, is also known as "Hangman's Beach" because of its use by the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars to hang the bodies of executed mutineers as a warning to crews of ships entering the harbour that this was a port where they had best behave themselves. The light at Maughers Beach was used in 1851 by Abraham Gesner to test out the new fuel he had invented, kerosene, to replace whale oil. Although lighthouse officials were skeptical, the careful recording of the efficiency of kerosene by Maughers Beach keeper David George helped establish the fuel for standard use.
During World War II new gun batteries, searchlights and a steel anti-submarine net were installed between the island and York Redoubt to prevent German U-boats from entering the harbour. In 1944 and 1945, the Canadian Army used McNabs Island as an isolated prison/detention centre for soldiers convicted of crimes.
McNabs Island was also the home of William Lynch and the location where he started the Bill Lynch Show.
The remains of Fort McNab were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1965 as being reflective of the significant changes in defence technology that occurred in the late 19th century. [6]
Today, of McNabs Island's total area of approximately 395 hectares (980 acres ), the Province owns 62 percent, the Federal Government 35 percent, and 3 percent is privately owned. Most federal lands on the island are administered as a park reserve by the Department of Heritage, under the responsibility of Parks Canada, which manages the Fort McNab National Historic Site of Canada, except for the Fort Hugonin lands of approximately 11 hectares, which instead are the responsibility of the Defence department. The Province of Nova Scotia manages a provincial park on the island. A group called "Friends of McNabs Island Society" a volunteer, non-profit registered charity based in Halifax, is dedicated to the preservation of McNabs, Lawlor and Devils Islands, and to the promotion of McNabs Island as a nature park and outdoor classroom. The Society hosts events on McNabs Island such as picnics, nature and historical tours, and annual beach clean-ups. The society produces maps and brochures, the popular guidebook Discover McNabs Island, island posters and quarterly newsletters. The society helps maintain the trails along with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Parks Canada. There are a few permanent residents living on the island and it is considered a community of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
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Citadel Hill is a hill that is a National Historic Site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Four fortifications have been constructed on Citadel Hill since the city was founded by the English in 1749, and were referred to as Fort George—but only the third fort was officially named Fort George. According to General Orders of October 20, 1798, it was named after King George III. The first two and the fourth and current fort, were officially called the Halifax Citadel. The last is a concrete star fort.
Events from the year 1750 in Canada.
Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2023, it is estimated that the population of the Halifax CMA was 518,711, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.
Point Pleasant Park is a large, mainly forested municipal park at the southern tip of the Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries, and still contains the Prince of Wales Tower - the oldest Martello tower in North America (1796). The park is a popular recreational spot for Haligonians, as it hosts forest walks and affords views across the harbour and out toward the Atlantic.
Eastern Passage is an unincorporated suburban community in Halifax Regional Municipality Nova Scotia, Canada.
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbours in the world. Before Confederation it was one of the most important commercial ports on the Atlantic seaboard. In 1917, it was the site of the world's largest man-made accidental explosion, when the SS Mont-Blanc blew up in the Halifax Explosion on December 6.
Fort Edward is a National Historic Site of Canada in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and was built during Father Le Loutre's War (1749-1755). The British built the fort to help prevent the Acadian Exodus from the region. The Fort is most famous for the role it played both in the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755) and in protecting Halifax, Nova Scotia from a land assault in the American Revolution. While much of Fort Edward has been destroyed, including the officers' quarters and barracks, the blockhouse that remains is the oldest extant in North America. A cairn was later added to the site.
Georges Island is a glacial drumlin and the largest island entirely within the harbour limits of Halifax Harbour located in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality. The Island is the location of Fort Charlotte - named after King George's wife Charlotte. Fort Charlotte was built during Father Le Loutre's War, a year after Citadel Hill. The island is now a National Historic Site of Canada. As of August 6, 2020, the island is open to the public on the weekends, from June until Thanksgiving weekend.
Lawlor Island or Lawlor's Island is a small island near the mouth of Halifax Harbour in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the site of a major quarantine facility for immigration from 1866 to 1938 and is today owned by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources as part of the McNabs Island provincial park reserve.
The Marine Drive is a designated scenic route along Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore. It closely follows the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Strait of Canso from the Canso Causeway to the junction of Route 322 and Highway 111 in Dartmouth.
York Redoubt is a redoubt situated on a bluff overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour at Ferguson's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, originally constructed in 1793. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1962.
Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax was a Royal Navy base in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Established in 1759, the Halifax Yard served as the headquarters for the Royal Navy's North American Station for sixty years, starting with the Seven Years' War. The Royal Navy continued to operate the station until it was closed in 1905. The station was sold to Canada in 1907 becoming His Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, a function it still serves today as part of CFB Halifax.
Sambro Island Lighthouse is a landfall lighthouse located at the entrance to Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, on an island near the community of Sambro in the Halifax Regional Municipality. It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in North America and its construction is a National Historic Event.
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.c 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.
Fort Menagoueche was a French fort at the mouth of the St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada. French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot and Ignace-Philippe Aubert de Gaspé built the fort during Father Le Loutre's War and eventually burned it themselves as the French retreated after losing the Battle of Beausejour. It was reconstructed as Fort Frederick by the British.
Low Point Lighthouse is an historic Canadian lighthouse marking the eastern entrance to Sydney Harbour at New Victoria, Nova Scotia, near New Waterford, Nova Scotia. This is one of the earliest and most important light stations of Nova Scotia, one of the first dozen beacons in Nova Scotia to be lit to guide mariners, a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.
The Devils Island Light is a Nova Scotia lighthouse located at the eastern shore entrance to Halifax Harbour on Devils Island, Nova Scotia. First lit in 1852, it was succeeded by a second lighthouse in 1877 which survives today. The lighthouse has influenced regional folklore and remains an important community landmark although it is currently neglected and threatened.
Silvanus Cobb was a Massachusetts provincial army captain and later naval commander who fought for the British primarily in Nova Scotia in the 1740s and 1750s.
Fort Clarence was a British coastal fort built in 1754 at the beginning of the French and Indian War in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. The battery was built on the grant of Capt. John Rous. Governor Edward Cornwallis’ principal engineer John Brewse designed the fort which was 35 to 40 feet above sea level - at the start there was a small battery of seven 12-pounder smooth bore cannon. In spring 1759, a Mi'kmaq attack on the Eastern Battery killed five soldiers.
Nova Scotia has two major national parks, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Kejimkujik National Park. Nova Scotia is also home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.. The two cultural and one natural site are the town of Lunenberg, the Grand-Pré National Historic Site, and the Joggins fossil cliffs. Nova Scotia is also famous for its numerous historical sites, museums, and natural areas.
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