What to
visit
Uniquely
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia's blend of
dramatic seas, scenic lands, Celtic music and friendly people shape a maritime
culture like no other.
Witness the world's highest
tide out of the Minas Basin and beachcomb the ocean floor for treasures. Drive the
Cabot Trail, Canada's great ocean highway. Visit the province's capital city,
the seaport of Halifax. Or stop by the town of Lunenburg to see the home of the
world-famous Bluenose II. The true
Canadian Champion in the International
Fishermen's Race, Bluenose I - a sleek looking
craft, designed to meet the race rule specifications of 145 feet overall
maximum length and racing trim water line length not exceeding 112 feet.
![[The Schooner Bluenose]](images/nova1.jpg)
Nova Scotia's
seacoast diversity is what makes this peninsula so unique.
Maritime Archaic Indians - the Mi'kmaq Native History
Kejimkujik
National Park and National Historic Site of Canada lies in the centre of traditional canoe routes
between the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Coast. The earliest inhabitants of
Kejimkujik were Maritime Archaic Indians, present from about 4,500 years ago.
The nomadic Woodland Indians were next to inhabit the area, utilizing seasonal
campsites along rivers and lakeshores. The gifts of
the Aboriginal people – their legends, art, music, spirituality, history, and
language - enrich the very essence of this province. http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/ceram.htm
The legends of
mythic hero-god Glooscap give meaning to the extraordinary geography of this
place - it was a meeting between Glooscap and a mighty whale that created the
awesome tides of the Bay of Fundy, for instance.
The Mi'kmaq are descendants
of these people and have called this area home for the last 2,000 years.
Petroglyphs are one remaining trace of Mi'kmaq life in the Park.
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/imagesns/petroglyphs
Celtic culture
Nova Scotia is Latin for New
Scotland. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, tens of thousands of Scottish
and Irish immigrants chose this peninsula on the east coast of a budding new
world as the place they would call home. The Celtic community unites Breton,
Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scots and Welsh, all Scottish clans’ descendants
from neighboring geographical area and families in the old country.
Cape Breton Island,
in particular, offers a chance to truly explore Celtic culture and history.
There is a saying common here: Ciad mile failte. It
means “a hundred thousand welcomes” and is typical of the warm greeting the
island’s visitors can expect.
For centuries, Nova Scotia
has been the gateway to Canada. From the arrival of the earliest
explorers like John Cabot, to Samuel de Champlain’s band of hardy adventurers
determined to settle an untamed world, to waves of Scottish immigrants and
British soldiers, to German farmers from the Rhine Valley - Nova Scotia has
welcomed them all.
The past is present every day
in Nova Scotia. Pass through the immigration sheds of Pier 21 National
Historic Site in Halifax, where over a million
immigrants, troops, war brides, and evacuee children started their new lives.
Gaelic
Culture
Welcome to Nova Scotia, the
last stronghold for Gaelic language and culture in North America. Scottish
Gaelic is a Celtic language and was first spoken in Nova Scotia by tens of
thousands of Scottish emigrants who came from the Highlands and Islands of
Scotland in the late 18th early 19th century. As in Scotland and Ireland, those
who speak Gaelic are referred to as Gaels. Today there are more than 2,000
Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia. The strength of the Gaelic culture, music, history and language has
endured here for three centuries, living and breathing in everyday life.
Traditions
The Scottish Gaels brought
with them one of western Europe’s richest oral traditions, including an ancient
storytelling tradition, acapella singing, a proud bardic tradition and a unique
fiddling, piping and dance tradition. This tradition was nurtured in
communities throughout Nova Scotia – many of them reflecting regional
traditions from their Scottish homes of origin, which continue to this day.
Acadian culture
The heart of Acadia beats in
Nova Scotia. You’ll find expressions of the unique Acadian history, culture,
and music all across this province. The Habitation, the fort built by the first
120 French settlers who arrived in 1604, stands on the shores of the Bay of
Fundy for visitors to explore.
http://www.girouard.org/cgi-bin/page.pl?file=deportation&n=4
,
http://www.acadian-home.org/deportation.html ,
An initiative of the
government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1961, the rebuilding over the
next two decades of Fortress Louisbourg transformed the ruins from heaps of
grass and stones to the impressive historical and interpretive site it is
today. The old capital of Isle Royale was back! http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/natcul/natcul4_E.asp
Researchers are sorting and
analyzing the local roots with the genealogy connections abound and between
Cajuns in Louisiana and the Acadians at the Acadian Centre Archives at Universite Ste.-Anne.
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German Culture
“The Jewel of the East
Coast", the Town of Lunenburg,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the second urban community in Continental
North America to be included on this list (the other is old Quebec City).
Time slows down when you
stroll along white sand...
Old Town Lunenburg, where
all streets are straight and all corners square, is the best surviving example
of a British colonial policy of creating new settlements by imposing a
pre-designed “model town” plan on whatever tract of wilderness it was the
King’s pleasure to colonize. At least 21 North American settlements, from
Cornwall and Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario to Savannah, Georgia, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, benefited from this policy. But none has survived
in such pristine condition as the little south-coast Nova Scotia town of
Lunenburg.
The settlement was created in
June 1753 as a home for 1,453 mostly German-speaking Protestant German, Swiss
and Montbéliardian French colonists. The townsite, true to then-current
convention, consisted of seven north-south streets, 48 feet wide (with the
exception of King Street, which is 80 feet), intersected at right angles by
nine east-west streets, each 40 feet wide, creating blocks that were further
divided into 14 lots of 40 by 60 feet each. Each family received one town lot.
The London-based Board of Trade and Plantations developed the plans without
regard to local topography, which is why Lunenburg’s streets are never less
than straight but sometimes dizzyingly steep.
There are some 400 major
buildings within the old town, 70 percent of them from the 18th and 19th
centuries, almost all of them wood, and many colourfully painted.
“The ancestors of today's
Lunenburgers were immigrant farmers, mostly Germans and some English, French
and Swiss who, in only two generations, through necessity, time and
determination were molded into some of the world's finest seamen and shipbuilders
- into a breed of people unsurpassed in history, in resolution, versatility and
craftsmanship.”
Thus wrote Elizabeth Hiscott
in the "Atlantic Advocate" magazine in 1978, when Lunenburgers
celebrated the 225th anniversary of the founding of their town.
The Town of Lunenburg was
named in honour of the Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg who had become King of
England in 1727. Lunenburg was the first British colonial settlement in Nova
Scotia outside of Halifax and was a deliberate attempt at civilian colonization
of what, until that time, had been a native and subsequently Acadian territory.
The expansion of the fishing
industry continued into the 20th Century and a host of associated businesses
flourished along Lunenburg's waterfront. The age of sail culminated in the
“Bluenose Era”— the 1920s and '30s, when the Town was a hive of activity, the
harbour filled with masts and sails, including those of the famous schooner Bluenose,
and the nearby shores taken up by fish drying flakes. This was also the time of
prohibition and the highly romanticized "rum running" era.
A view from Lunenburg's
beautiful waterfront today will take to many established marine industries:
High Liner Foods Inc., one of the largest fish processing plants in North
America; Lunenburg Industrial Foundry and Engineering Ltd., founded in 1891;
Scotia Trawler; Adams and Knickle; Deep Sea Trawlers; ABCO Industries Ltd.,
founded in 1947; and the Lunenburg Marine Railway, one of the largest marine
railway complexes in Nova Scotia. A diversified economy based on the fisheries,
tourism and manufacturing has become firmly entrenched in Lunenburg. The Town
of Lunenburg's 250th anniversary in 2003 is a testament to this.
It was because of diligence,
hard work, competence and endurance that the early settlers were able to
survive. Coming to this new land gave them hope for peace and freedom. They
brought the traits and traditions that enabled the people of Lunenburg not only
to survive and continue, but also to make their town one of the best known in
all of Canada.
http://www.lunenburgns.com
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Cape Breton – Town of Baddeck
Best known as the inventor of
the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell was also one of the outstanding
figures of his generation in the education of the deaf. Bell first came to
Baddeck in 1885 and returned the next year to establish a vacation home for his
family, far from the formality and summer heat of Washington D.C.C.
By the time of Bell's
arrival in Baddeck, the success of the telephone had freed him from the need to
earn a living and, at “Beinn Bhreagh”, Bell continued his busy routine of
experimentation and analysis. His imagination and wide-ranging curiosity led
him into scientific experiments in such areas as sound transmission, medicine,
aeronautics, marine engineering and space-frame construction. Bell can be
considered an inventor, an innovator, an inspirer of others and a humanitarian.
Aeronautical work was a large part of his life at “Beinn Bhreagh”, from early
kite-flying experiments to the success of the Silver Dart in February 1909.
This achievement was a product of Bell's collaboration with four young men
(Casey Baldwin, Douglas McCurdy, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge and Glenn Curtiss)
in the Aerial Experiment Association, founded in 1907. In later years, Bell and
Baldwin turned to experiments with hydrofoil craft that culminated in the
development of the HD-4, which set a world speed record in 1919.
September
9, 1919. World marine speed record
set
by Bell and Baldwin’s HD-4: 114 kilometers per hour.
© Parks Canada \ AGBNHS of C \ Multiplex
#431
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Cape Breton Miners Museum
Coal mining is known as one
of the toughest, most dangerous jobs in the world. The tour guides in this
remarkable museum can attest to that – many are retired coal miners. The museum
is located in the proud mining town of Glace Bay on one of the world’s
prettiest islands, Cape Breton.
Wander throughout the Mining
Village through two separate periods of life in a "company town" –
the 1850s and the turn of the century. Step back in time as you visit
the Miners' Village, don't miss an underground tour of the Ocean Deeps Colliery,
a coal mine located beneath the Museum building. It’s a trip into the
workday in the life of a coal miner in 1932. Retired coal miners are
your guides for this excursion underground, and promise to entertain and inform
you in a custom that has become treasured by visitors all over the world.
Exhibit Hall features
permanent and temporary installations on the geology of coal development,
mining techniques and equipment, and the personal, moving stories of miners and
their families. The museum is proud to call itself home to the world-renowned
men’s choir, The Men of the Deeps.
http://www.menofthedeeps.com/discography.html
In Nova Scotia, the coal
production is 7,000,000 tons annually. The coal mined in Nova Scotia, has for
generations, gone to provide the driving power for the industries of Quebec and
Ontario. For almost a century, Nova Scotia has been exporting the raw material
that lies at the base of all modern industry.
"The Cape Breton Development Corporation, a federal Crown corporation,
currently controls all leases on the Sydney Coal Field. This coal field, which
contains the only metallurgical coal east of Alberta, is part of a large
carboniferous basin stretching from Cape Breton Island some 100 kilometers
north-east. Its leasehold is a small portion of the total coal field which
extends eight kilometers off-shore.
In 1911, if a person in Cape
Breton was not born in Nova Scotia, then they were most likely from
Newfoundland, Scotland, Russia or Italy. By 1921, data indicates that the
ethnic origin of Cape Bretoners was mainly Scottish, followed by English, Irish
and then Acadian or French. There were smaller numbers of Jewish,
Austro-Hungarian, Belgian, Polish and Black citizens.
Amazing
mining facts: In 1873,
there were eight coal companies operating in Cape Breton. The miners were paid
from 80 cents to $1.50 per day and the boys were paid 65 cents.
For more see… http://www.minersmuseum.com/history_of_mining.htm
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Marconi
National Historic Site of Canada
History
Late in October 1902, the
Royal Italian Navy warship, Carlo Alberto, arrived in Sydney Harbour, arousing
intense interest. Not only was the ship festooned with a bizarre array of
copper aerials but on board was Signore Guglielmo Marconi, the scientific
sensation of the day. Just a year before, on 12 December 1901, on the top of
Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland, Marconi had received a Morse code
signal from his transmitter in England. It is difficult in today's world to
conceive of the impact of such an event. Young, elegant and charming, Marconi
was a member of an Italian family closely related to influential members of the
British establishment. To these advantages were added a keen sense of
scientific enquiry, enlightened by a spark of genius and, to top it off, a
finely-tuned business sense that could close in on an opportunity like a steel
trap.
From this site in 1902, Marconi sent the first message across
the Atlantic using electro-magnetic waves instead of wires.
©
Parks Canada / Morrison Powell, 2002
Although the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company forced Marconi to end his experiments in Newfoundland because
it claimed he had violated its communications monopoly, within days he was in
Ottawa dining with Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier and the Hon. William S.
Fielding, minister of finance and the most powerful Nova Scotian politician in
Ottawa. In two more days, he came away with promises of $80,000. to finance a
station to be located in Cape Breton, most likely on a windy plateau thrusting
out into the North Atlantic from the edge of the booming mining town of Glace
Bay.
Why there?
Unlike his scientific
contemporaries, Marconi did not labour in dusty obscurity and his Newfoundland
experiences had been followed by a fascinated public, including leading
citizens of Cape Breton. Seizing the opportunity when he landed at North Sydney
on 26 December 1901, fresh from his triumph in Newfoundland, they gave him a
whirlwind tour of possible station sites near Sydney. Marconi liked Table Head
and on a later visit in March announced his choice of the site. The owner, the
Dominion Coal Company, turned it over to him and with his financing established
with support from the Canadian government, the thing was done.
By the time Marconi arrived
with the Carlo Alberto in 1902, the Table Head site was occupied by four
spectacular wooden aerial towers, each over 200 feet in height, as well as the
buildings containing the electrical equipment. After much experimentation, on
14 December, the station in Cornwall reported readable Morse code signals over
a two hour period. The next night, the Canadian correspondent for the London
Times, George Parkin sent a dispatch to England. This was followed by official
messages to King Edward VII of Britain and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
Transatlantic wireless telegraphy had begun.
For more see... http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/marconi/natcul/index_E.asp
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Route 19/Ceilidh
Trail
Glenville, Cape Breton
Nova Scotia, Canada
1-800-839-0491
 |
Glen Breton
Rare Canadian Single Malt Whisky
is
the only single malt whisky produced in Canada. It is produced by the
traditional copper pot stills method using only three ingredients: Barley,
Yeast and Water.
It can not be called 'Scotch'
unless it is produced in Scotland, hence, Canadian Single Malt Whisky.
Colour: Golden Amber
Nose: Butterscotch, heather, honey and ground ginger
Taste: Creamy with a good flow of toasty wood, almond and
caramel
Finish: Rounded, lingering, faintly sweet, merest whisper of
peat
Glen Breton Rare Canadian Single Malt Whisky - Glenora Distillery (Canada). An
aromatic whisky presenting a pleasing golden-yellow colour highlighted with
hints of amber and orange. The nose is medium-bodied, but pleasantly fiery,
offering a tight combination of butterscotch, heather, honey and ground ginger
with elongated, wood-infused undertones. |
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