The last half of the 19th century was Canada’s “railway age,” as rail lines crossed the continent and extended into virtually all regions of the country. By 1897, only two Nova Scotian counties—Guysborough and Victoria—lacked rail access. To…

La construction navale a joué un rôle économique important en Nouvelle-Écosse, notamment dans la vaste région du sud-ouest. Les chantiers de construction de navires dépendaient de l’industrie forestière tout en appuyant le commerce de l’exportation…

"At last the big egg opened. ‘Pip! pip!’ said the young one, scrambling out; he was very big and ugly." – Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling When I mention that I work at the Sutherland Steam Mill invariably, I get a blank look. Then I…

Minudie is a fairly isolated area of Nova Scotia between the mouth of River Hebert and the Cumberland Basin. Originally occupied by the Mi’kmaq and later farmed by Acadians before the Deportation, the area became part of a grant made to Joseph…

In 1892, Jean-Jacques Stehelin come to Nova Scotia from France to explore the possibilities of establishing a business here. His father, Émile, knew some of the faculty at Collège Sainte-Anne at Church Point, so this is where his investigations…

In 1908, Winfred Theodore Ritcey started the Acadia Gas Engines Company on the banks of the LaHave River in Bridgewater. The company was known the world over for its two-cycle gas engines. With the company’s rapid expansion, Acadia Gas Engines began…

From the very first day it opened in 1874, to the day it closed 80 years later, the Balmoral Grist Mill was powered by a pair of hydraulic turbines. That is irrefutable. When the mill was renovated and converted to a museum, someone, for reasons…