Isthmus of Chignecto
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The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia which connects the mainland portion of Nova Scotia with North America. The isthmus separates the waters of Chignecto Bay, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy, from those of the Northumberland Strait, an arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The isthmus is generally acknowledged to stretch from its northerly point at an area in the Petitcodiac River valley near the city of Dieppe, New Brunswick to its southerly point at an area near the town of Amherst, Nova Scotia. At its narrowest point between Amherst and Tidnish, Nova Scotia, the isthmus measures 24 kilometres wide.
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[edit] Geography
The majority of the lands comprising the isthmus have very low elevation above sea level with a large portion comprising the Tantramar Marshes, as well as tidal rivers, mud flats, inland freshwater marshes, coastal saltwater marshes, and mixed forest. Several prominent ridges rise above the surrounding low land and marshes along the Bay of Fundy shore, namely the Fort Lawrence Ridge (in Nova Scotia), the Aulac Ridge, the Sackville Ridge, and the Memramcook Ridge (in New Brunswick).
[edit] History
Prior to British control of present-day mainland Nova Scotia (after 1713), the isthmus was host to a growing Acadian farming community called Beaubassin. The isthmus became the location of the historic dividing line between the British colony of Nova Scotia and the French territory. French military forces established Fort Beausejour on the Aulac Ridge in 1749 in response to the British construction of an outpost called Fort Lawrence on the ridge immediately to the east - between the two ridges was a tidal stream called the Misaquash River which France generally accepted to be the boundary between the French and British territories, despite the fact that an official boundary had never been determined. France also constructed Fort Gaspereaux on the shores of the Northumberland Strait to effectively control travel on the isthmus.
On May 22, 1755 a fleet of three warships and thirty-three transports carrying 2100 soldiers sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, landing at Fort Lawrence on June 3, 1755. The following day the British forces attacked Fort Beausejour and on June 16, 1755 the French forces evacuated to Fort Gaspereaux, arriving on June 24, 1755 and onward to Fortress Louisbourg where they were re-garrisoned on July 6, 1755. This battle proved to be one of the key victories in the Seven Years' War which saw Britain gain control of all of Nouvelle France and l'Acadie.
Fort Beausejour was renamed Fort Cumberland and replaced Fort Lawrence due to its substantial construction over the British post. The British forces set about burning the French villages at Beaubassin and rounded up the settlers as part of the 1755 Acadian expulsion (the Great Upheaval).
In 1758 Governor Lawrence issued a proclamation inviting New Englanders to come to Nova Scotia and settle on vacated Acadian lands and take up free land grants. He also extended this invitation to new England soldiers whose enlistments had expired and were planning on returning home. These people became known as the New England Planters.
Following the war in 1763 the isthmus saw three 100,000 acre (400 km²) townships created which took the names of Amherst, Sackville and Cumberland.
The New England settlement drive was not very successful, and after a few small groups arrived and 1760 and 1761 some families returned home and the British government decided to look elsewhere for settlers. Between 1772 and 1775 over twenty ships carried upwards of 1000 settlers from Yorkshire, England to the new townships. The descendants of this Yorkshire Emigration continue to be prominent in the areas development and history.
The American Revolutionary War saw a semi-organized, yet unsuccessful, attempt by local guerrilla and U.S. forces to take Fort Cumberland and the Tantramar region in October and November 1776. The invaders were routed by British forces from Halifax and Windsor.
The Eddy Rebellion proved to be disastrous for the Acadians rebels. Eight of their houses and barns at Inverma Farm, Jolicoeur, were put to the torch. They had been tenants of Willian Allan since release as prisoners from Fort Cumberland(Beauséjour)in 1764. He was the father of John Allan, leader of the Nova Scotis rebels.With Winter coming, they were forced to relocate with their families to Memramcook.[1]
[edit] Transportation
A key surface transportation route, the Isthmus of Chignecto was host to French and later British military roads across the Tantramar Marshes and along the strategic ridges since the 1600s.
In 1872, construction of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada saw the mainline between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick built across the southern portion of the isthmus, skirting the edge of the Bay of Fundy while crossing the Tantramar Marshes between Amherst, Nova Scotia and Sackville, New Brunswick.
In the 1880s a railway line was built from Sackville across the isthmus to Port Elgin and on to Cape Tormentine which played host to an iceboat service and in 1917 a ferry service to Prince Edward Island was established to connect with the Prince Edward Island Railway.
The isthmus also saw one of Canada's earliest mega-projects in the 1880s when a broad gauge railway was built from the port of Amherst to the Northumberland Strait at Tidnish for carrying small cargo and passenger ships. This ship railway was never successfully operational and construction was abandoned shortly before completion.
In the 1950s, while construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway was underway, a group of industrialists and politicians from the Maritimes called for a Chignecto Canal to be built as a shortcut for ocean-going ships travelling between Saint John and U.S. ports to the Great Lakes to avoid travelling around Nova Scotia. The project never progressed beyond the survey stage.
The Trans-Canada Highway was built on the isthmus in the early 1960s, connecting with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, parallelling existing Canadian National Railway trackage.
[edit] References
- ^ Régis Brun, De Grand Pré à Kouchibougouac, Éditions d'Acadie,Moncton, 1982, p. 59-60
