Natural setting
Wine Harbour in Nova Scotia
Wine Harbour is a rural area located on the east side of the harbour of the same name on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. This shore is studded with bays and inlets.
Wine Harbour is a community located in Guysborough County along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.
Wine Harbour is a rural area located on the east side of the harbour of the same name on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. This shore is studded with bays and inlets.
The presence of the Atlantic Ocean gives the area a semi-maritime climate with a delay of seasons as compared with inland areas; however, frequent offshore winds bring continental-type weather with winter cold and summer heat. In late summer and fall, the area can be threatened by hurricanes or their extratropical remnants.
The bedrock is quartzite, which is almost entirely silicon dioxide with little more than trace amounts of nutrient-bearing minerals; consequently, the soils are infertile. They are also so stony as to be non-arable. The dominant soil, a Gleyed Humo-Ferric Podzol under the Canadian system of soil classification, is mapped as the Danesville Series. Somewhat stunted but well-exploited forests of black spruce, white spruce, tamarack and balsam fir alternate with treeless barrens and peat bogs. Pitcher plants and sundews are abundant in the bogs. The introduced white poplar is escaping from cultivation. Many other exotic plant species remain confined to residents' gardens, often in raised beds or even discarded automobile tires to avoid the stones. Seaweed, available at local beaches, is a very popular compost material.
A Portuguese vessel loaded with wine was wrecked here. Its cargo flowed into the harbour, establishing the name. The Indian name was "Pebumkeegunech" which when translated to English means "fish spawning place" or "an outlet cut through the sand". In 1818, one family consisting of five persons settled here and cleared 10 acres (40,000 m2). This was probably the family of John Walters, a native of North Carolina and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War who settled in Nova Scotia around 1811 or 1812.
By 1862, Wine Harbour was thriving rapidly. The main reason for its vigorous growth was the discovery of gold in July 1861 by Katie Doody and Joseph Smith, Sr. (probably not the Mormon; probably descendant of William Ashmore Smyth of Smithfield NS) which was the beginning of a great gold boom which lasted until 1905. The first crusher used was called the Victoria Crusher and it was run by water power. The procedure began when the rocks were hoisted out of the ground by horses, put on wooden scowls and brought across the harbour, if the wind was favorable, to the Victoria Crusher which was on the then Thomas Cooper property. The surveyor for the mining company at this time was D. W. Crockett. At the peak of this gold boom there were ten crushers run by steam power using coal, which was brought from vessels from Sydney. Because of the gold mine, Wine Harbour was one of the first settlements in Guysborough County to have electricity.
After 1905 the gold mining industry lay desolate until 1936 when C. Irving supervised the opening of the once prosperous gold mines. It died the following year and Wine Harbour lost its once booming industry forever. At the time of the gold mining industry Wine Harbour was also growing in other aspects. Thomas Lucas had a hotel and store and the Irwin family had a number of general stores throughout the area. A lobster factory was located in the area whose foreman was John Ballantyne and a blacksmith shop and a bank were also in the area. Postmaster at this time was John Gilles. St. Patrick's Mission Church was built in 1857 to replace a larger church that had been destroyed by a hurricane. A Union Church was dedicated to Baptists, Anglicans and Presbyterians in 1897, and is no longer in existence. St. Patrick's Mission Church has been vacant since 1955. * The first schoolhouse was built in 1869 and 85 pupils were registered at this time. Before this it was believed that the original Catholic Church was used during the week as a schoolroom for the children.
After 1905, limited farming, fishing and logging were the main industries and the 1956 population decreased to 50. Today the population of the community is about 25. Wine Harbour has lost its gold mines, its factories, most of its fishing, many of its forests, a church and the majority of its people. Its history will remain.
In 2014 the current population stands at 9.[ citation needed ]
Sherbrooke is a rural community on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, in Guysborough County. It is located along the St. Mary's River, a major river in Nova Scotia. The community is named for Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, a colonial era Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. Gold was discovered in the area in 1861 and Sherbrooke entered a gold rush which lasted two decades. The economy of the community today revolves around fishing, tourism and lumber. The community is the site of an open-air museum called "Sherbrooke Village" which depicts life in the later 1800s in the wake of the gold rush era.
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.
Country Harbour is a rural community in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The community is situated on a large deep natural harbour of the same name and is located along the province's Eastern Shore close to Canso, Nova Scotia.
Indian Harbour Lake is a rural community and lake of the same name located in Guysborough County Nova Scotia, Canada. It is nestled ten minutes outside of Sherbrooke, and 2.5 hours from the capital of Nova Scotia, Halifax. Seven lakes are located around Indian Harbour Lake, which are named Mitchell Lake, First Lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, Indian Harbour Lake, Monument Lake, and Archibald's Lake. Indian Harbour Lake is also located 5 minutes from the community of Port Hilfordd, which has a sand beach.
The Eastern Shore is a region of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is the Atlantic coast running northeast from Halifax Harbour to the eastern end of the peninsula at the Strait of Canso.
The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia, Canada has a widely varied geography.
Goldboro is a Canadian rural community in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. Located on the Eastern Shore along Route 316, Goldboro is approximately 16 kilometres west of the shire town of Guysborough.
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.
Lake Charles is a small lake in Nova Scotia’s Halifax Regional Municipality between the communities of Dartmouth and Waverley. It is situated between Port Wallace in the south and Nova Scotia Highway 107 in the North, Nova Scotia Highway 118 in the west and Nova Scotia Route 318 to the east. It is the summit of the Shubenacadie Canal, where the level of the surface is 31 m above sea level. Located in the Shubenacadie watershed, it ultimately feeds into the Bay of Fundy. However, it also feeds into Halifax Harbour through the canal locks at Shubie Park.
Isaac's Harbour is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County.
Seal Harbour is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Guysborough County. Located on the east side of Isaac's Harbour, it was named for the abundance of seals once found there. Founded as a fishing settlement, it became a gold mining community with the initial discovery in the area in 1867, with further discoveries in 1892. Gold mining near Seal Harbour peaked in 1904–1907. The mines briefly reopened from 1939 to 1942 and then closed, leaving fishing and lumbering as the main industries. Some gold exploration is still carried out in the area by the Orex Exploration company.
Port Felix is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County.
Cross Roads Country Harbour is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County.
Country Harbour Mines is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County.
Isaac's Harbour North is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County.
Whitehead is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough in Guysborough County. As of 2011 the population of Whitehead consists of between 50 and 120 people. The location and geography of Whitehead is very typical of a coastal fishing village, in that it has various large rockformations and many small islands surrounding it. The harbour is protected by islands and points extending out into the bay from either side. Whitehead experiences large amounts of fog due to its relative location. Each year during the second week in August the annual Whitehead Days festival is held, with a parade, games for children, a beer garden, and many other attractions.
Orex Exploration is a former Canadian gold mining company that conducted exploration work on mining properties it owned in the Goldboro and Guysborough County areas of Nova Scotia. The properties owned by Orex were the sites of the former Boston Richardson Mine, Dolliver Mountain Mine, West Goldbrook Mine, and East Goldbrook Mine which operated between 1892 and 1912. Headquartered in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, the company was founded in 1987 and raised funds for exploration work, in part, by issuing stocks traded on the Montreal Stock Exchange and then the TSX Venture Exchange. It became a subsidiary of Anaconda Mining Inc. after Anaconda acquired the company in a stock swap deal in 2017.
Gold was first discovered in the Wine Harbour Gold District of Nova Scotia in 1860. Between 1862 and 1907 approximately 42,336.5 troy oz of gold were extracted. The bulk of this extraction was from a series of open pits and underground workings. Historical exploitation of gold via surface pits is rare in Nova Scotia, and it is believed that relatively high grades were found over significant widths in shallow plunging ore shoots.
Gold mining has been a part of Nova Scotia's heritage for 150 plus years and continues to this day. Over a million ounces of gold have been produced in the province since mining began in 1861. Although not as well known as the gold rushes of California, the Klondike, Australia, and South Africa, three distinct rushes resulted in an economic boom in the province and saw the birth and sometimes demise of many new communities.
The Eastern Shore is a tourism region of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It provides two percent of the revenue for the province's tourism economy. One of its key features is an archipelago known as the 100 Wild Islands area.
J.D. Hilchey, D.B. Cann, and J.I. MacDougall, 1964. Soil Survey of Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. Report No. 14, Nova Scotia Soil Survey.