New Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

New Yarmouth in Nova Scotia

New Yarmouth is an abandoned farming and forestry community which is now part of the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia near the village of Advocate.

Geography

New Yarmouth occupies a plateau 800 feet above West Advocate overlooking Advocate Bay, a branch of the Bay of Fundy. The highest point in Cape Chignecto Provincial Park is located on a summit of 900 feet just north of the New Yarmouth fire tower. McGahey Brook and Mill Brook have their source at New Yarmouth, draining south to Advocate Bay through deep ravines, while Copp Hollow Brook also begins at New Yarmouth, draining to the north.

History

The abandoned farm fields of New Yarmouth

Land at New Yarmouth was first granted to Loyalist John Hall in 1785 and later granted to Alexander and John Grant in 1819,^[1] although neither of these families appear to have settled at New Yarmouth. By 1873, only two families the Copps and Brown families had settled in the community.^[2] The expansion of lumbering in the Cape Chignecto area in the late 1800s brought more families and growth. In 1904, the community had 10 homes and a school located around the intersection of the New Yarmouth Road and Eatonville Road. The Wasson family became important landowners in New Yarmouth in this period, contracting out timber lands, running lumber camps for mills and providing horse teams. However a collapse in timber prices in the early 1920s caused many mills to close and logging operations around New Yarmouth declined. The school house closed and was moved to nearby Advocate where it was converted to a dwelling.^[3] By they early 1950s isolation and opportunities elsewhere led the last few families to leave, a similar fate also shared by nearby Eatonville as part of a postwar abandonment of isolated farming and forestry communities in Cumberland County.^[4] The land was used for blueberry fields and pulp wood harvesting by Scott Paper.

Today

The New Yarmouth Fire Tower

Only abandoned fields, grassy foundations, and a few empty hunting cabins remain at New Yarmouth. The sole existing structure is a fire tower and cabin staffed seasonally by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources.^[5] In 1989 the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park acquired the land where New Yarmouth once stood. The park's main backpacking trail skirts the western edge of New Yarmouth. The old New Yarmouth Road is used by fire lookouts and park maintenance staff.

Coordinates: 45°22′31.5″N 64°49′46.5″W / 45.375417°N 64.829583°W / 45.375417; -64.829583 (New Yarmouth, Nova Scotia)

References

1. ^ "New Yarmouth", Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, p. 485
2. ^ Church Map of Cumberland County (1873)
3. ^ Brian Kinsman and Sylvia Fairbanks, "A Preliminary History of the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park Area, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia" Nova Scotia Dept. of Natural Resources (1995), p. 46
4. ^ Roger David Brown, Historic Cumberland County South, (Halifax: Nimbus, 2002) p. 62
5. ^ "Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources Fire Towers", Maritimes Scanning Site