Nantucket Island (New Brunswick)

Last updated
Nantucket Island
Geography
Location Bay of Fundy
Area32 [1]  ha (79 acres)
Administration
Canada
Province New Brunswick
County Charlotte
Parish Grand Manan Parish

Nantucket Island is a privately owned island between Woodward's Cove and the Duck Islands in the Grand Manan Parish of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada in the Bay of Fundy. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Most of its 80 acres are arable, and it has historically been used to grow potatoes, turnips, wheat, oats and barley. [1] Over the hundred years that it belonged to the Moses and Cheney families, "Nantucket Island served as an outdoor laboratory for marine biology, ornithology and horticulture". [5]

History

In 1806, William Gactomb became the first settler on the island. In 1829 Moses Cheney, son of William Cheney of Cheney Island, also settled on the island and his son the naturalist Simeon .F. Cheney lived out seventy years on the island. [1]

The island was historically seen as a trove of flora and Fauna to be studied, with naturalist Spencer Fullerton Baird visiting the island six times before 1886 and writing in his 1869 report to the Smithsonian Institution about the island. [1] [5]

There were visits to the island as well by Senator Edmunds at Baird's recommendation, as well as naturalists Addison Emery Verrill, Francis Hobart Herrick and others. [1]

In 1909, John Russell purchased the island from Cheney. [5]

Today

NB Tourism recommends not landing on the island, as resident bulls may be hostile. [6] Salmon aquaculture sites sit on the eastern side of the island. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 St Andrews Bay Pilot (Saint John Sun), "Nantucket Island: An Interesting Spot in the Bay of Fundy", March 25 1886
  2. "No. 166". Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  3. "489" (PDF). Transportation and Infrastructure. Government of New Brunswick. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 4 July 2021. Remainder of parish on mapbooks 490, 497, 500, and 501 at same site.
  4. "Search the Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGNDB)". Government of Canada. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Wings Over the Sea, by L.K. Ingersoll
  6. 1 2 "Grand Manan Tourism". www.grandmanannb.com.