Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Yarmouth
Downtown Yarmouth
Seal
Nickname(s): The Gateway to Nova Scotia
Motto: Progress
Yarmouth Location of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Coordinates:
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
Founded	1761
Incorporated	August 6, 1890
Government
- Mayor	Phil Mooney
- Governing Body	Council of the Town of Yarmouth
Area
- Town	10.56 km² (4.1 sq mi)
Elevation	0-43 m (0-141 ft)
Population (2006)
- Town	7,162
- Density	678.2/km² (1,756.5/sq mi)
- Urban	10,366
Time zone	AST (UTC-4)
Postal code span	B5A, B0W
Area code(s)	902
Telephone Exchanges	742, 740, 746, 748, 749, 304
Median Earnings	$31,584
NTS Map	020O16
GNBC Code	CBPIB
Part of a series about Places in Nova Scotia
Website: http://www.yarmouth-town.com/

Yarmouth is a town and major fishing and ferry port located on the Gulf of Maine in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as "The Gateway to Nova Scotia".

History

Evangeline wharf, circa 1910.

Fishing Boats in Yarmouth, NS.

The townsite may possibly have been visited by Leif Erikson and his Norsemen in 1007. A Runic Stone was found at the nearby village of Overton in 1812. It is interpreted by some to be carved by Erikson, while others feel the markings are natural scratches gradually enhanced over the years. The stone may be seen at the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives.

The region was visited in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, who named it Cap Fourchu, and it became a French fishing settlement. In 1759 settlers came to the townsite from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and named it Yarmouth after their former home. The town was founded in 1761, when a larger group of settlers came from Sandwich, Massachusetts. They were then followed by Acadians originally from the Grand Pré district who returned from exile in 1767. Substancial numbers of United Empire Loyalists arrived in 1785.

Initially called Cape Forchu, Yarmouth was first laid out in 1759 and incorporated in 1890. Through the 19th century it was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point making more ships per capita than any other port in the world. As wooden shipbuilding declined in the late 1800s, Yarmouth's shipowners re-invested into factories, steamships and railways such as the Western Counties Railway which evovled into the Dominion Atlantic Railway. While steamships had led to the decline of Yarmouth's mighty wooden shipbuilding industry, they also made the port a vital connection between the new Nova Scotia rail lines and steamers for Boston and New York,a role which continues with Yarmouth's ferry connections today. The harbour has remained a major fishing port in Southwestern Nova Scotia. In 1994, The Scarlet Letter was shot in a town an hour by highway away called Shelburne.

World War II history

Originally opened in 1940 as 3 separate training sites (the East Camp, the West Camp and the Air Base) under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, but known collectively as RCAF Station Yarmouth.The East Camp was home to a detachment of the Royal Air Force's No. 34 Operational Training Unit (from Pennfield Ridge), who trained Bomber crews, as well as the Royal Navy's No. 1 Naval Air Gunners School from 1 January 1943 - 30 March 1945. The West Camp was home to the RCAF's Anti-Submarine Bomber Reconnaissance and several Eastern Air Command Bomber Reconnaissance Squadrons. The Air Base was home to the 9th Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery, various RCAF and RAF Bomber Squadrons and an Army Co-operation Reconnaissance Flight. Its primary function was as an administrative and logistical support base to the RAF and RCAF squadrons in the area, in addition to providing a Weather Information Section, an Armament Section and a firing range. Several smaller installations associated with the air station were located in the area: a bombing range at Port Maitland, a fuel depot at Digby, and radar detachments at Plymouth, Tusket and Bear Point, Port Mouton and Rockville. In 1944, a detachment of the US Navy briefly came to Yarmouth to test the effectiveness of a blimp service. After a crash, the RCAF decided against this venture. RCAF Station Yarmouth closed in 1945. The airfield was sold to the Department of Transport in 1946 and became the Yarmouth Airport. The Infantry base (known as Camp 60) on Parade Street also trained 20000 men during the war, primarily basic training and artillery training.^[1]

A Hudson bomber from Royal Canadian Air Force Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron 113 in Yarmouth became the first aircraft of RCAF's Eastern Air Command to sink a submarine, sinking U-754 about 100 miles south of Yarmouth on July 31, 1942.^[2]

Tourism

The Cape Forchu Lighthouse

Tourism has been a major industry in Yarmouth since the 1880s when Loran Ellis Baker founded the Yarmouth Steamship Company. Steamship and railway promotion based in Yarmouth created the first tourism marketing in Nova Scotia..^[3] Baker's steamships operated between Yarmouth and Boston until 1900, when the company was purchased by the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The DAR and Halifax and Southwestern Railway offered connections for passengers arriving in Yarmouth with steamship services operating to New York City and Boston. This service continued until the 1950s. Canadian National Railways instituted a ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine in the 1950s and this was continued by CN Marine and Marine Atlantic until 1997. Access to Yarmouth is primarily by Highway 101 - North Shore, Highway 103 - South Shore, the Yarmouth Airport and The Cat - Bay Ferries: see below. In 1998 operation of the Bar Harbor route was transferred to Bay Ferries Limited which currently operates a high-speed catamaran ferry - HSC The Cat.

In the 1970s an American tourist cruise company, Prince of Fundy Cruises, began operating a conventional cruise-ferry between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth. This operation continued as Scotia Prince Cruises until April 2005. The ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland has been resumed by The Cat (2006) on weekends, whereas on weekdays the Cat sails between Yarmouth Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor Maine daily.

Yarmouth is home to the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives which preserves the history of the town and surrounding county from a reconstructed former church as well as two historic houses and the Killam building on the Yarmouth waterfront.^[4] The Nova Scotia Firefighters Museum and Sweeney Fisheries Museum are also located in Yarmouth.

The town is only located a few kilometers away from the well-known Cape Forchu Lighthouse which is located in the small village of Cape Forchu. The lighthouse is stationed at the end of the peninsula that guards Yarmouth Harbour.

In 2007, Yarmouth became part of a new travel region called "Yarmouth & Acadian Shores." The new region was oficially recognized by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage and encompasses the Municipalities of Argyle, Clare, Yarmouth and the Town of Yarmouth.

Climate

• Yarmouth averages 191 days of fog each year. [1]

• The 83 cm of snow occurred in February, 2004 in the storm White Juan.

Sports

Downtown Yarmouth at dawn.

The New York Islanders a team in the National Hockey League had their training camp for the 2005-06 NHL season and 2006-07 NHL season in Yarmouth at the Mariners Centre[2]. The team had not been to Canada for training camp since a mid-'90s visit to Kitchener, Ontario, when Don Maloney was general manager and Mike Milbury was coach. The Islanders did not return in September 2007, opting to go to Moncton where head coach Ted Nolan served as the coach of the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 2005-2006.

• Yarmouth is also home to the Yarmouth Mariners a Maritime Junior A Hockey League Team.
• South End Yarmouth is home to the only golf course in town and one of the oldest in Nova Scotia, the Yarmouth Golf & Country Club.

Education

Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library

The town of Yarmouth is home to a high school an adult high school, a junior high school and three elementary schools. It is also home to a Nova Scotia Community College campus and the Dalhousie University School of Nursing.

Colleges

• Dalhousie University (School of Nursing) - Yarmouth Regional Hospital
• NSCC Burridge Campus

Adult High Schools

• Yarmouth Adult High School (adults only)

High Schools

• Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School (10-12)

Junior High Schools

• Yarmouth Junior High School (7-9)
• Maple Grove Education Centre (7-9) - Hebron

Elementary Schools

• Meadowfields Community School (pr to 6)
• South Centennial Elementary School (K to 6)
• Yarmouth Central Elementary School (pr to 6)

Library

The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library has served as the town's public library since 1963. The library offers many services including free computer and wireless Internet access to library patrons.

Neighbourhoods

A street in North End

• North End or Milton
  • Residential. high and low income area.
• Centretown including Downtown
  • Tourism area, boutiques and shops. Older historical homes, high and low income area.
• South End
  • Residential. high and low income area.

Demographics

The Yarmouth town hall

According to the Canada 2006 Census:^[5]

Racial make-up Census 2006

• White 93.93%
• Black 4.25%
• Asian 1.30%
• Arab 0.29%

Language(s) First Learned and Still Understood Census 2001

• English: 89.13%
• French: 10.58%
• Both English and French: 0.16%
• Other languages: 0.13%

Religious make-up Census 2001

• Catholic 44.77%
• Protestant 36.48%
• Hindu 0.68%
• Jewish 0.26%
• Sikh 0.26%
• No religious affiliation 17.02%

Notable residents

The downtown area, showing Main Street

• Loran Ellis Baker, founder of the Yarmouth Steamship Company
• Heather Crowe
• Alfred Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Company.
• Evelyn Gigantes, a former politician.
• George Kenney, a United States Army Air Forces general
• Ben Kerr, an author, broadcaster, musician and political candidate.
• Izaak Walton Killam, was one of Canada's most eminent financiers.
• Bowman Brown Law, M.P. for Yarmouth who lost his life in the 1916 Canadian Parliament fire.
• Neil LeBlanc, the former finance minister of Nova Scotia.
• John Lovitt, a ship’s captain, shipowner, shipbuilder, entrepreneur, and politician.
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a victim of the Virginia Tech Massacre.
• Jody Shelley, NHL hockey player for the San Jose Sharks.
• Kenneth G. T. Webster
• Bruce Saulnier, played for Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League from 1974-1977
• Chris d'Entremont, Minister of Health for the Province of Nova Scotia.
• Brian Borcherdt, singer/songwriter

Media

• 92.1 FM - CBHY (CBC Radio One)
• 93.5 FM - CJLS (The Wave)
• 94.7 FM - CJLS (The Wave)
• 95.5 FM - CJLS (The Wave)
• 96.3 FM - CJLS (The Wave)
• 104.1 FM - CIFA (Acadian community radio)
• 107.3 FM - CBAF (Première Chaîne)

See also

• Municipality of the District of Yarmouth
• Yarmouth County
• List of places in Yarmouth County
• Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever
• Symbols of Nova Scotia
• Yarmouth Airport

References

External links

• Yarmouth official town government Website
• Official tourism website for Yarmouth & Acadian Shores travel region
• Information and Resources for the residents, businesses, and visitors to Yarmouth County And Surrounding Areas.
• Yarmouth Nova Scotia Website
• Yarmouth Dining, Attractions, Shopping, Accommodations, Clubs, Tours, Transportation
• Wartime Heritage Association
• Yarmouth Photos
• Yarmouth Music
• Evangel Assembly

		Digby
	Atlantic Ocean		Barrington & Shelburne
		Yarmouth
		Plymouth & Wedgeport