New Denmark, New Brunswick
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New Denmark is a Canadian rural community in Victoria County, New Brunswick.
The community derives its name from several Danish settlers who inhabited the area in 1872, eventually forming the largest Danish community in Canada; the Danish influence has diminished somewhat in recent decades due to out-migration.
The community is situated in rolling hills east of the Saint John River valley several kilometres south of Drummond. Its main industry is potato farming and related industries.
The community hosts Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Pentecostal churches. Its five major ancestries are: English (50.1%), French (36.4%), Danish (17.0%), Scottish (12.4%), Irish (11.9%).
In 1912 the National Transcontinental Railway constructed a large steel trestle across the Salmon River valley. Today, this bridge remains an important structure on the Montreal-Halifax mainline of the Canadian National Railway.
[edit] Trivia
- Of the original families to come immigrate in 1872, the descendants of one of them (Anders and Marie Carlsen) are especially numerous, but there are also many other families from subsequent immigrations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today the community is more mixed, but the Danish language can still be heard, and many families with French or English surnames, still proudly proclaim their Danish roots.
- During the summer of 2006, the site of the building in which the original settlers spent their first winter (the "Immigrant House") was declared a Provincial Historical Site by the government of New Brunswick. A plaque was placed at this site, near the New Denmark Museum which stands there today.
- During the summer of 2007, the community celebrated it's 135th anniversary by holding a queen's pageant, a re-enactment of the founding of the community, by holding a parade and by holding many other planned activities.
- New Denmark and its early inhabitants have been the subject of much research. One of the more recent studies was performed by Erik Lang of Perth-Andover, who donated 2 copies of his M.A. (Carleton University) thesis New Denmark, New Brunswick: New approaches in the study of Danish migration to Canada, 1872-1901, to the New Denmark Museum in 2005. Copies of the thesis can also be found in the public libraries of Perth-Andover, Grand Falls, and Fredericton, at the Archives of the Harriet Irving Library on the UNBF campus, at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, at the Maxwell MacOdrum Library on the Carleton University Campus, and at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.
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