Beaver River is a small

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

community that straddles the Digby County and Yarmouth County line, located on the southwest coast of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada, near the town of

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

. Beaver River was originally named Elsetcook which was a

Mikmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northe ...

word meaning "Flowing by high banks". The first settlers, who rarely accepted outsiders to their settlement, had last names such as: Hersey, Landers, Pitman, Sanders, Crosby, Patten, Cann, Goudey, Perry, Jeffrey, Tedford, Corning, Killam, Trask, Blackadar, Byrnes, Phillips, Kelley, Porter, and Sollows. Many of these names are still quite common around

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo- Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It c ...

today. (List from "Brown's History of Yarmouth County") There are three recently restored cemeteries now maintained by the Old Beaver River and Port Maitland Cemeteries Preservation Society where many of these early settlers are buried.

References

General Service Areas in Nova Scotia Communities in Digby County, Nova Scotia {{DigbyNS-geo-stub