A whale watching ship takes passengers through Doyle's Passage between Pendleton Island (left), and Macs Island (right) witih New Ireland in the foreground.
Doyle's Passage (alternately called Boyle's Passage) initially referred to the narrow northern passage between the island and Macs Island which was then termed Letete Island, but the term later came to refer to the narrow passage between Pendleton's Island and Deer Island, with the northern passage renamed L'etete Passage.[4] Two overhead power cables over the passage have clearances of 15 and 21 metres.[4] The passage between Pendleton and Deer island is shallow and marked with rocks, making it difficult to cross.[9]
The island has a 500' cliff that historically drew thrillseekers to attempt to climb.[5] The island contains a lagoon, and its chief bay has a steep gravel barrier beach.[11]
The northern side of the island is silurian rock.[12]
History
It was named for three Loyalist brothers Stephen, Thomas and Gideon Pendleton who settled the island.[13][1][14] A 1796 deed shows Thomas Pendleton purchased "Hardwood Island" from Thomas Doyle for £150, which is presumed to reference Pendleton's Island rather than the currently-named Hardwood Island a few kilometres away.[15]
The island was described by Thomas Baillie in 1832 as "a narrow island...between which and Deer Island there is a narrow passage for boats...this island is settled, its soil good, the situation unobjectionable and its aspect favourable to agriculture.". [16]
In November 1893, Luther Lambert of Lord's Cove married Millie Pendleton at the home of her father, Ward Pendleton, on the island.[19]
From at least 1910-1916, Calvin Pendleton and his wife Theresa Holland lived on the family including with their daughter Arlene.[20]
An 1882 article on a shark being found in a Pendleton Island weir
On Oct 31 1938, Blanchard Lambert drowned when his boat capsized off Pendleton's Island, and his body was recovered on Little Island.[21]
In 1938, Raymond Greenlaw was hired to work on the power lines from McMaster Island to Pendleton Island to Deer Island, and he spent the next four decades largely operating as Deer Island's only representative of NB Power.[22] He recounted the time a power line had gone down on Pendleton Island falling on three grazing cows "cooking them on the spot".[22]
The Pendleton family continued living on the island, across two homesteads raising crops and cattle until approximately 1935 when ownership was split between nearly 150 descendents of the deceased Ward Pendleton.[23] The Nature Conservancy of Canada located 114 of the descendants who agreed to sign over their share of the island, as did Dr. Herb Mitton, leading to its establishment as a nature sanctuary and one of the Conservancy's largest properties.[24][23]
In September 1947, two Eastport pilots Frank Bradish and Morton Berman swam to safety after their plane hit the power lines on Pendleton Island.[25]
A 1985 study confirmed the presence of an unnamed shipwreck in the northern cove of the island.[26]
↑ Thomas, M. L. H., J. A. Stevens, et al. (1990). Shallow marine, littoral and terrestrial associations of Pendleton Island, New Brunswick, Publ. Sci. NAT. New Brunswick Museum (No. 9), New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New Brunswick, (Canada).
↑ McAslan, Alison. "A Floristic Survey of Pendleton Island, New Brunswick"
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