Portal:Nova Scotia

West River Falls, where the West River empties into the Northwest Arm.

Sheet Harbour is a rural community in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located in the eastern reaches of the Halifax Regional Municipality, approximately 117 km (73 mi) northeast of the central urban area of the municipality, concentrated on Downtown Halifax and Dartmouth. The community is located along the Marine Drive scenic route on Trunk 7 at its junctions with Route 224 and Route 374. Surrounding the branched harbour which its name is derived from, the community has a population of about 800 and its respective census tract, containing sizable amounts of land around the community, has a population of 3,478 as of the 2011 Census. Two rivers, West River and East River, flow through the community and into the Northwest and Northeast Arms of the harbour respectively. The coastline of the community is heavily eroded and the region in which the community is located has an abundance of lakes. The region has a humid continental climate, congruent with the majority of Nova Scotia, and the ocean significantly influences the temperature.

The Miꞌkmaq referred to the area around present-day Sheet Harbour as Weijooik, meaning "flowing wildly". The majority of the land that the community occupies was granted in 1773, and a colony was established thereafter in 1784 by Loyalist refugees and British veterans of the American Revolution. The settlement was labelled as "Port North" on the Royal Navy Chart published in 1778, and retained this name until 1805. Alternate names such as Campbelltown and Manchester were proposed for the settlement, but the name was ultimately changed to Sheet Harbour, named for a rock at the entrance to the harbour resembling a sheet, to provide a more descriptive name for the settlement. Sheet Harbour became a prosperous hub for the lumber industry. A sawmill was built around 1863 at the tide head of East River, though its operating company dissolved a few years later due to financial issues. The first sulphide pulp mill in Canada was built in 1885 at East River. The mill closed in 1891 due to the cost of importing sulphide. (Full article...)

Vaccinium caesariense

Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s. (Full article...)

Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1756

Lieutenant-General Edward Cornwallis (5 March 1713– 14 January 1776) was a British Army officer and member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family. After Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, he was appointed Groom of the Chamber for King George II (a position he held for the next 17 years). He was then made Governor of Nova Scotia (1749–1752), one of the colonies in North America, and assigned to establish the new town of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Later Cornwallis returned to London, where he was elected as MP for Westminster and married the niece of Robert Walpole, Great Britain's first Prime Minister. Cornwallis was next appointed as Governor of Gibraltar.

Cornwallis arrived in Nova Scotia during a period of conflict with the local indigenous Miꞌkmaq peoples of peninsular Nova Scotia. The Mi'kmaq opposed the founding of Halifax and conducted war raids on the colony. Cornwallis responded with the extirpation proclamation of 1749, orders to bring back scalps of rebels. His administration erected forts at Grand Pre, Chignecto and Halifax and organised a militia of 840 men. Despite these efforts, the conflict would continue for several years after Cornwallis's term. (Full article...)