Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
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Louisbourg (2001 pop.: 1,157) is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
The name was given by French military forces who founded the Fortress of Louisbourg and its fortified seaport on the southwest part of the harbour, in honour of Louis XV. The French fortress was demolished after its final capture in 1758 and the site was abandoned by British forces in 1768. Subsequent English settlers built a small fishing village across the harbour from the abandoned site of the fortress. The village grew slowly with additional Loyalists settlers in the 1780s. More intensive growth followed the arrival of Sydney and Louisburg Railway in 1874 which used Louisbourg Harbour's ice-free waters as a winter coal port.
Pronounced "Lewisburg" by its largely English-speaking population, the present community has been identified by slightly different spellings over the years by both locals and visitors: "Louisbourg" and "Louisburg". The latter name was formalized by the Sydney and Louisburg Railway The spelling Louisbourg is formally recognized as the correct version by the Geographic Names Board of Canada and by Nova Scotia's coordinator for geographic names. The town's name originally was "Louisburg". On 6 April 1966, the Nova Scotia Legislature passed "An Act to Change the Name of the Town of Louisburg," changing the name to the Town of Louisbourg.
Incorporated in 1901, the Town of Louisbourg was disincorporated when all municipal units in Cape Breton County were merged into a single tier regional municipality in 1995.
Today, Louisbourg has tourism and primary seafood processing as the main industries. Depletion of fish stocks has greatly challenged the town's economic base in recent years.
A large golf course is under development (designed by Nick Faldo)by Cape Breton Island Development ([1]), which is expected to open for play in 2010.
Amongst other tourism-related ventures, a Grand Encampment will be held at the Fortress of Louisbourg in 2008, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the British siege victory over France in 1758. ([2]) Annually, the community hosts the Louisbourg Crab Fest, one of the finest festivals in Canada ([3]).
Louisbourg is also home to an Elizabethan-style theatre, once used as a prop in the Disney movie, Squanto:A Warrior's Tale. ([4])
[edit] Fictional references
Louisbourg (spelt Louisberg) was mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story Feathertop. The town is also a major setting for Thomas H. Raddall's 1946 novel Roger Sudden.
[edit] Sources and References
- Places Names of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, p. 375, http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/places/page.asp?ID=375
[edit] See also
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