Boularderie Island (pronounced "bull-awn-dree") is an island separating the

Cabot Strait Cabot Strait (; french: détroit de Cabot, ) is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint L ...

from

Bras d'Or Lake Bras d'Or Lake (Mi'kmaq language, Mi'kmawi'simk: Pitupaq) is an irregular estuary in the centre of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a connection to the open sea, and is tidal. It also has inflows of fresh water from rivers, ma ...

on the eastern coast of

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

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. It takes its name from Louis-Simon le Poupet de la Boularderie, who was granted the area as a concession from the King of France.

Geography

At 40 km (25 mi) long and between 3 km (2 mi) to 10 km (6 mi) wide, Boularderie Island is Nova Scotia's second largest island after

. Two outlets of Bras d'Or Lake run on each side of the island to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

: * the Great Bras d'Or channel runs along the island's northwestern shore, and * St. Andrews Channel and the Little Bras d'Or channel run along the island's southeastern shore. The extreme northeastern end of the island at Point Aconi fronts the Cabot Strait, whereas the extreme southwestern end at Kempt Head fronts the northern basin of Bras d'Or Lake. The majority of the island is heavily forested, however, there is a small number of farms along the southern and eastern shores. The northern end of the island in the community of Point Aconi has been home to several underground

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s with the last one, the Prince Colliery, closing in November 2001. There have also been several controversial proposals to

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

near-surface deposits which is meeting significant opposition from residents in the northern end of Boularderie Island. The

Point Aconi Generating Station The Point Aconi Generating Station is a 165 Megawatt, MW Canada, Canadian electrical generating station located in the community of Point Aconi, Nova Scotia, Point Aconi, Nova Scotia, a rural community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. A ...

is located at the northern end of the island adjacent to the abandoned Prince Colliery brown field. The island is divided across two of the province's counties with the north and western side being part of

Victoria County Victoria County is the name of several locations: In Australia: *Victoria County, Western Australia * County of Victoria, South Australia In Canada: * Victoria County, New Brunswick * Municipality of the County of Victoria and the eponymous histo ...

(approximately 2/3 of the island's land mass), and the remainder of the more populated northeastern end being part of

Cape Breton County Cape Breton County is one of eighteen counties in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located on Cape Breton Island. From 1879 to 1995, the area of the county excluded from towns and cities was incorporated as the Municipality of th ...

Communities

The following communities are located on Boularderie Island: Within

: * Bras d'Or (The western portion of this community straddles the Little Bras d'Or Channel onto Boularderie Island.) * Dalem Lake * Groves Point * Hillside Boularderie * Mill Creek *

Mill Pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the com ...

* Millville (Also known as "Millville Boularderie".) * New Dominion * Point Aconi (This community also includes the place name "McCreadyville".) * Southside Boularderie (Not to be confused with the adjacent "Southside of Boularderie" in Victoria County. This community also includes the place names "Black Brook" and "Boularderie West") Within

: * Big Bras d'Or * Black Rock * Boularderie Centre (This community also includes the place names "Boularderie" and "Big Bank".) * Boularderie East * Kempt Head * Ross Ferry * South Side of Boularderie (Not to be confused with the adjacent "Southside Boularderie" in Cape Breton County. This community also includes the place name "Island Point".) * Upper Kempt Head

Roads

The island is encircled by local roads, however, there are only two numbered highways: * Highway 105, also signed for the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

, traverses the island diagonally from the

Seal Island Bridge The Seal Island Bridge is a bridge located in Victoria County, Nova Scotia. It is the third longest bridge span in the province. The bridge is a through arch design and crosses the Great Bras d'Or channel of Bras d'Or Lake, connecting Bou ...

at Boularderie East in the west through to the Little Bras d'Or Bridge at Bras d'Or in the east. It was constructed in the early 1960s. * Highway 162, also signed as the Prince Mine Rd, runs from Highway 105 at Bras d'Or to the

at Point Aconi. It was constructed in the 1970s to serve the Prince Colliery.

External links

"The Boularderies"
Islands of Nova Scotia Landforms of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Landforms of Victoria County, Nova Scotia {{NovaScotia-geo-stub