Coordinates: 45°36′16″N61°22′03″W / 45.60444°N 61.36750°W Point Tupper is a rural community in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, on the Strait of Canso, in western Cape Breton Island.
Extensive land grants in the area were acquired in 1863 by Henry Nicholas Paint, of Belle Vue, Canso, member of Parliament for Richmond (Nova Scotia electoral district), who started to promote a township on the site, a project which he continued doggedly until his death in 1921. According to Paint, the site was named by Sir James Kempt after Ferdinand Brock Tupper, the Guernsey historian. [1] [2]
In the 1880s, Point Tupper became the eastern terminal for a railcar ferry service operated from the port of Mulgrave, directly opposite on the western shore of the Strait of Canso. The Intercolonial Railway line continued east from Point Tupper to Sydney, making Point Tupper an extremely important port for the economy of Cape Breton Island.
In 1955, the Canso Causeway opened, closing the railcar ferry service and resulting in a decline in Point Tupper's economy as railway facilities were removed or abandoned.
However the causeway, which completely closed the Strait of Canso's water flow (except for the Canso Canal) also created a sheltered ice-free deepwater port to which Point Tupper's waterfront uniquely suited for the increasing number of modern deep draught cargo ships entering service following World War II.
In the early 1960s, the government of Robert Stanfield created Industrial Estates Limited as a provincial Crown corporation. IEL designated major portions of Crown land fronting the Strait of Canso, including virtually the entire peninsula from Point Tupper to Port Malcolm in Richmond County as well as a corresponding area on the western shore between Mulgrave and Melford in Guysborough County. New highways and roads were constructed and railway lines were extended to service the various properties and lakes were converted to reservoirs.
One of the first industries to locate at Point Tupper was Swedish pulp and paper manufacturer Stora which opened one of the largest pulp mills in eastern North America in the early 1960s. Stora merged in the 1990s with Finnish pulp maker Enso to form Stora Enso. In 2007, Stora Enso sold its North American production facilities including the Point Tupper mill to NewPage Corporation. NewPage closed the mill in September 2011 after it filed for bankruptcy. In 2012 it was sold to Pacific West Commercial Corporation which restarted production in part of the complex.
To service the electrical requirements for the pulp and paper mill, Crown corporation Nova Scotia Power constructed the Point Tupper Generating Station, a new oil-fired power plant at an adjacent property; it was converted to coal in 1986. These industries were soon followed by a gypsum loading terminal for gypsum being mined by Georgia Pacific in the County of Inverness and delivered to Point Tupper by rail - ironically the ship loader was on the same site as the former railcar ferry dock.
Point Tupper was also the site of several failed industrial policies, when the Gulf Oil refinery was closed and mothballed in the late 1970s and later dismantled, although its storage tanks remain to this day, now operated by NuStar Energy. Another more infamous folly involved a heavy water manufacturing plant built in the 1970s following the 1973 oil crisis by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), but quickly closed and later mothballed and dismantled. A gypsum drywall manufacturing plant also closed after experiencing difficult economic conditions. A new company, Federal Gypsum, attempted to reactivate the mothballed drywall plant in the early 2000s (with massive government subsidy) but subsequently went bankrupt.
During the late 1990s, Point Tupper's strategic location proved useful when the Sable Island natural gas project located a gas liquids processing plant. In the early 2000s, Nova Scotia Power built a large bulk coal terminal. A liquified natural gas terminal was under construction at the southern end of the Point Tupper Industrial Park at Bear Head but this has since been discontinued.
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Canso Causeway is a 1,385 m (4,544 ft) rock-fill causeway crossing the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is 40 m (130 ft), carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway, Nova Scotia Highway 104 on the mainland side, and Nova Scotia Highway 105 on the Cape Breton side, as well as the single track mainline of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.
Port Hawkesbury is a municipality in southern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. While within the historical county of Inverness, it is not part of the Municipality of Inverness County.
The Strait of Canso is a strait located in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It divides the Nova Scotia peninsula from Cape Breton Island.
Havre Boucher is a community in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a short line railway that operated in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. CBNS operated of main line and associated spurs between Truro in the central part of the province to Point Tupper on Cape Breton Island.
Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s.
Ferdinand Brock Tupper, was one of the leading historians of the Channel Islands.
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NewPage was a leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America with $3.1 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2012. NewPage was headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, and owned paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of paper.
Mulgrave is a town on the Strait of Canso in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Located along the Marine Drive, Route 344 traverses the community. The town's current name was adopted in 1859 to honour the colonial Lieutenant Governor, the Earl of Mulgrave. Lying opposite to the town of Port Hawkesbury, the community is located along the western shore of the Canso Strait. It was established as McNair's Cove in the early 19th century, and the name Port Mulgrave was adopted in 1859, later shortening to its current form. The early industry of the community relied on ferry service between the Nova Scotia mainland and Cape Breton Island. Ferry service began in the 1810s and rail service reached the area in the 1880s. The ferry services lasted until the opening of the Canso Causeway in 1955, dealing a major blow to the local economy. As of 2016, Mulgrave has a population of 722 and a population density of 40.5/km2 (104.9/sq mi), within an area of 17.83 km2 (6.88 sq mi).
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.
Nova Scotia is a province located in Eastern Canada fronting the Atlantic Ocean. One of the Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia's geography is complex, despite its relatively small size in comparison to other Canadian provinces.
The Trenton Generating Station or Trenton GS is a 310 MW Canadian thermal generating station located in the town of Trenton, Nova Scotia.
Port Hastings is a unincorporated settlement on Cape Breton Island, within the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Canada. The population in 2021 was 90.
Melford International Terminal is a proposed Canadian marine-rail container terminal to be built in the community of Middle Melford in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia.
Henry Nicholas Paint was a Canadian politician, shipowner and merchant.
The Point Tupper Generating Station is a 150 MW Canadian electrical generating station located in the community of Point Tupper in Richmond County, Nova Scotia.
The Grand Narrows Bridge is a Canadian railway bridge crossing between Victoria County, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton County. At 516.33 m (1,694 ft), it is the longest railroad bridge in the province. The bridge incorporates a swing span at its eastern end to permit the continued passage of marine traffic through the strait.