Baddeck, Nova Scotia

Infobox Settlement
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settlement_type = Village
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image_caption = The Baddeck Lighthouse which also appears on the village seal.


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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = CAN
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name1 = NS
subdivision_type2 = Municipality
subdivision_name2 = Victoria County
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leader_title =Village Chair
leader_name =Eddie Keeling
leader_title1 = Village Committee
leader_name1 =Village of Baddeck Commission
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population_total = 907
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timezone = AST
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latd=46 |latm=06 |lats=0 |latNS=N
longd=60 |longm=45 |longs=15 |longEW=W
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elevation_m = 0-67
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postal_code_type = Canadian Postal Code
postal_code = B0E 1B0
area_code =902
blank_name =Telephone Exchange
blank_info = 295
blank2_name = NTS Map
blank2_info = 011K02
blank3_name = GNBC Code
blank3_info =CABFY
website = [http://www.countyvictoria.ns.ca/baddeck.html http://www.countyvictoria.ns.ca/baddeck.html]
footnotes =

Part of a series about Places in Nova Scotia

Baddeck (2001 population: 907) is a Canadian village in Victoria County, Nova Scotia.

It is the county's shire town and is situated on the northern shore of Bras d'Or Lake on Cape Breton Island. According to some historians the name Baddeck is derived from the Mi'kmaq term "Abadak" which has been translated as "place with an island near" (in reference to Kidston Island, immediately offshore).

The creation of the Cabot Trail during the 1930s made Baddeck the focal point for vehicle touring on Cape Breton Island. The village experienced a boom in post-World War II tourism, particularly after the 1956 opening of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada and the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105) immediately north of the village during the early 1960s.

Today, Baddeck functions as a service centre for the sparsely populated county and hosts a well-equipped volunteer fire department, a consolidated school serving grades Primary-12, as well as a public library, provincial government offices, a hospital and a nursing home.

The village's economy is driven by tourism during the summer and fall months; it has been estimated by provincial tourism officials that the village experiences almost as many tourists as the provincial capital Halifax. Baddeck has managed to maintain public access to much of its attractive waterfront while preventing aesthetically unpleasing developments. It hosts a yacht club which is the focal point for cruising on Bras d'Or Lake, as well as a world-class golf course, a lake-front resort and numerous hotels/motels and restaurants and shopping establishments.

History

Early settlement

Baddeck was historically home to seasonal and year-round settlements of the Mi'kmaq Nation, as evidenced by their naming it "Abadak".

Europeans discovered the inland part of Cape Breton Island during the 17th century when Jesuit missionaries from France established a settlement at nearby St. Anns in 1629. British settlement came during the 18th century after the territory was ceded by France; a United Empire Loyalist Cpt. Jonathan Jones (retired British Army) and his family arrived in 1790 and were given a Crown land grant in the Baddeck River valley. They were followed by other Loyalists and immigrants from Scotland.

Naming of Kidston Island

In 1813, Lt. James Duffus (retired British Army), whose wife was a sister-in-law of Sir Samuel Cunard founder of the Cunard Line of steamships, was given a grant of land which included the island referred to in the naming of Baddeck. Duffus carried on a mercantile business and the island became known as "Duffus Island". In 1833, William Kidston was returning to Scotland from Halifax but was shipwrecked off Cape North and found his way south to Baddeck. Here he met and married the widow of James Duffus, thus the island's name was later changed to Kidston's Island (now Kidston Island). The community owes much to Mr. Kidston. It was he who advised the separation of Cape Breton and Victoria Counties and gave the site of the present court house to the village.

Establishment of the McCurdy family

The Kidston business was moved to the mainland in 1840 and was later taken over by a gentleman from Colchester County named Angus Tupper. His wife was the daughter of the Hon. David McCurdy, and when her husband died, her brother Edward McCurdy arrived to help her with the business. The McCurdy family was later induced to settle in Baddeck and with their coming came further progress for the growing community. The head of the family, Hon. Mr. McCurdy, set up a business and brought a young man named Thompson from Pictou County to start a tin-smithing shop. A shoe making business was next started by a Mr. Procter which led to the establishing of two tanneries on the shore road. The McCurdy family contributed much to the growth and development of Baddeck. One of their direct descendants, the late Hon. John A.D. McCurdy, former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, made history on a cold day in February, 1909, when he made the first airplane flight in the British Empire at the wheel of the Silver Dart using frozen Baddeck Bay as its runway.

Establishment of the village

The history of the village proper began in 1839 with the settlement of two families on the mainland. One was that of Joseph Campbell, a native of Newry, Ireland who built an Inn on a property near Indian Cove. The Inn also contained a tavern and a Post Office, and Mr. Campbell became Baddeck's first Post Master. Mail was brought from Sydney by carriers on foot with the mail bags on their backs. Mr. Campbell later moved to the United States. The second family was that of Hector MacLean of Scotland who built his home on the property adjoining the old Knox Cemetery on the Bay Road. Between these two homesteads there were no other residences but the wigwams of the Indians along the shore of the Lake.

In 1841, Mr. Charles J. Campbell, who in later years was known far and wide as the Hon. C. J. Campbell, opened a store on the waterfront. He catered to the large Scottish trade in the area and across the lake in Boisdale, Iona, Grand Narrows, and Washabuck. He swept all opposition before him for was he not a Highlander, speaking Gaelic as his mother tongue. The Hon. Mr. Campbell who was largely responsible for the growth of the village. In addition to his mercantile business he undertook shipbuilding and turned out many large ships between 1844 and 1881. He also developed the Kelly's Cove coal deposits and built his home which later became the Hotel Baddeck which eventually burned down. He named it 'Duntulum House', a name now given to one of our streets and where now stands the Alderwood Rest Home. He also donated the land for the new cemetery and was one of the first to be interred there. The settlement of New Campbellton was named in his honor and for many years his face looked out from a plaque above the door of 'Gertrude Hall' which was destroyed by fire in 1939.

Establishment of the Baddeck Academy

About this time a far-seeing resident named Hezekiah Ingraham took steps to educate his family. He hired a teacher and set aside a room in his home where the children of the neighbourhood were introduced to the three 'R's'. Though himself a Protestant, he made no religious distinction. This is surprising because at that time religious intolerance and bigotry was the rule, but more than a few Catholic children were among those receiving instruction. Soon the small room could no longer contain the numbers and so the first school in Victoria County was built. Later it was enlarged and from Baddeck Academy have gone forth men and women who were to distinguish themselves and bring honor to their homeland at the Bar, in the pulpit, in the medical profession, on the political platform and in business throughout Canada and the United States. Among the pioneer families who lived in the area at this time we find such names as Sparling, Leaver, Taylor, Robertson, and others many of which still remain throughout the area.

Places of worship

The first church built in Baddeck was erected on the Bay Road in 1841. It was removed in 1865 and a larger edifice took its place. In 1890 this was abandoned and Greenwood Church was built on its present site. In 1925 when Greenwood joined the union, a new Knox Church, the present structure, was built on Grant Street. A Methodist Church was built but was later demolished because of diminishing membership though the Rectory still stands and is used as a dwelling. In 1880 St. Peter's Church of England and a Congregational Church were built. The latter was later purchased by Mrs. Dr. Bell and renamed 'Gertrude Hall'. For a time it housed the Baddeck Public Library but was destroyed by fire in 1939 when only 1,800 of its 8,000 books were saved.

The first Catholic Church was built on the present site in 1858 and was named St. Michael's. It was lost in the big fire of 1926, but a new St. Michael's soon rose from the ashes of the old one.

Lake transport and shipping

The first freight and passenger ship to come up the Bras d'Or Lake, called the 'Banshee', arrived in 1855. As the years went by, and more and more business opened up, more and larger ships arrived and an extensive export business was carried on with Newfoundland and the French Island of St. Pierre. Chief exports were cattle, sheep, and farm produce. New buildings went up, among them the Telegraph House (still operated by descendants of the first owners, Mr. and Mrs. David Dunlop) in 1860. Prominent among business names of that time were Joseph Hart and Son, MacKay and MacAskill, J.P. MacLeod, D.F. MacRae (White Store), John E. Campbell and others.

Alexander Graham Bell's summer retreat

In 1885, Alexander Graham Bell, his wife Mabel, and their two young daughters, arrived by boat from the Strait of Canso. They fell in love with Baddeck and built two homes on Beinn Bhreagh, as well as the original Bell Laboratory, predecessor to the famous Bell Laboratories many years later. Dr. Bell and his family helped begin a new era for the people of the village. Alec Bell, who was a Scot and could speak Gaelic, took Baddeck to heart and made their home a gathering place for the village. Alec and his wife Mabel promoted culture, sociability, science and industry among the villagers.

In his laboratory on Beinn Bhreagh across the Bay from Baddeck, Alec Bell conducted experiments, built kits, airplanes, hydrofoil boats, and, during WW I, lifeboats for the Canadian navy. The Bells provided steady employment for many in the village; while Mabel Bell did much to foster home industries, among them the hooking of rugs for which the village of Chéticamp is today so famous.

Baddeck became the site of the first controlled powered aircraft to fly in the British Empire, the "Silver Dart" which was first flown off the ice of Baddeck Bay on February 23, 1909. Another one of Dr. Bell's experimental craft, the "HD-4" hydrofoil established the world watercraft speed record in 1917 after travelling at 71 MPH across Baddeck Bay; the record lasted for 20 years.

Alexander Graham Bell spent the last thirty years of his life mostly in Beinn Bhreagh and he died there in 1922. His wife followed him a few months later and together they rest on the top of their beautiful mountain under a simple boulder of granite.

Additional information

In these early days Baddeck was an up and coming community. It boasted three newspapers: "The Telephone" edited by Mr. Charles Pippy; "The Island Reporter", Mr. W.F. McCurdy; and later the "Victoria News" by Mr. Charles Gilman. It had five doctors, three lawyers, a drug store, two hotels, six stores, a Chinese laundry, two merchant tailors, marble and granite works, a brass band and bandstand, a photographic store, plank sidewalks, and telephone facilities. A court house was built in 1890 and a yacht club in 1902. The Home and School Association had its birth at Baddeck in l895 and the public library of 8,000 books was housed in Gertrude Hall.

The outlying sections at this time were all prosperous farms until the markets for their produce were lost. Today there are ghost farms where once flourished stables full of beautiful horses and cattle. The homes were furnished with hand woven carpets, drapes, linen and bedding, and much of their furniture was made by hand, many of the people being skilled craftsmen.

Tragedy struck Baddeck twice during the early 20th century, first in 1908 when a terrible epidemic of cholera broke out, taking the lives of 31 residents. Then on the eve of Labour Day in 1926, a disastrous fire broke out in the general store of MacKay and MacAskill on Main Street. Fire fighters were hampered by lack of equipment and before dawn more than 20 buildings were destroyed in the conflagration.

During World War II the Royal Canadian Navy named a "Flower"-class corvette warship|HMCS|Baddeck.

References

External links

* [http://www.countyvictoria.ns.ca/baddeck.html Baddeck Municipal Information]
* [http://www.fred.net/kathy/baddeck.html Baddeck and that Sort of Thing]
* [http://ns1763.ca/victco/bellmusbbm.html Photographs of three memorial plaques at Baddeck, A.G. Bell, F.W. Baldwin, J.A.D. McCurdy]
* [http://ns1763.ca/victco/bellhistpark.html Photographs of Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park at Baddeck]
* [http://ns1763.ca/victco/baddckcrth.html Photographs of First Flight plaque at Baddeck courthouse]