Canard is a

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 descri ...

community occupying a ridge to the north of the

Canard River The Canard River is a river in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada which drains into the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy between the communities of Canard and Starr's Point. It is known for its fertile river banks and extensive dyke land agricult ...

between the Canard and Habitant Rivers in Kings County in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province 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 ...

. The name comes from the French word for duck which was in turn derived from the Mi'kmaw name for the river which described the large numbers of black ducks once found there.

Geography

Canard Street, also known as Route 341, runs through the community following the Canard River and is bisected in the middle by Route 358 which divides the community between Upper Canard to the west and Lower Canard to the east. The corner was known by the names of Canard Corner and Hamilton Corner but is best known by locals as "Jaw Bone Corner". The name stems from a large set of whale jaw bones which were mounted at the crossroads after a whale stranded and died on the Canard River in the early 19th century."A Mini History of Jaw Bone Corner, ''Nova News Now'' 2006
/ref>

History

The community takes its name from the

. Successive cultures have lived by the river and have named the settlement area by different but related names. Where Canard Street and Highway 358 intersect is known as jawbone corner, often called this by the local residents of the area. It got its names because back before the Wellington Dyke was completed in 1885, a large whale swam up the Canard river, and became stranded on the beach as the tide went out. The jaw bones of the big whale were then placed in the yard of the house that was on the corner.

Apocheechumochwakade

Canard was known to the Mi'kmaq people as Apocheechumochwakade meaning "home of the black duck". Archaeological sites indicate that the Mi'kmaq used the river mouth for shad fishing. Wellington1

Rivière-aux-Canards

Canard was an important Acadian village known as

Rivière-aux-Canards Rivière-aux-Canards was an Acadian community located at the west side of the Minas Basin from 1670 until 1755. The community occupied the present-day site of Canard, Port Williams and Starr's Point, Nova Scotia. The village was established i ...

whose population settled on both sides of the river beginning in the late 1600s and totaled 750 people by 1750. The Acadian settlement included extensive dyked farm lands along the river, several mills, its own parish. The Acadian settlement was destroyed in the 1755 Bay of Fundy Campaign of the

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...

. A severe storm in November 1759 broke the Acadian dykes and flooded the unoccupied farmlands.

Canard

New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ( ...

took up the Acadian lands in 1760. They gradually repaired and expanded the old Acadian dykes. Today Canard consists mostly of large farms and several agricultural processing plants located between the village of Canning to the north and

Starr's Point, Nova Scotia Starrs Point is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County two miles (3 km) west of Port Williams. Starrs Point faces the Minas Basin to the east and separates the mouths of the Cornwallis River and the C ...

to the south. The federal government's Sheffield Research Farm is located in Upper Canard. Many acres of Canard farmland are protected by the

Wellington Dyke The Wellington Dyke is an agricultural dyke in Kings County, Nova Scotia protecting over of farmland along the Canard River between the communities of Starr's Point and Canard in Nova Scotia, Canada. Built by local farmers, it was begun in 181 ...

, built by the Planters at the mouth of the Canard River in 1825. The main church was the First Cornwallis Baptist Church.https://firstcornwallisbaptist.ca/

References

Nova Scotia Archives: Place Names of Nova Scotia, "Canard", p.100=101
{{coord, 45, 7, 58, N, 64, 26, 8, W, name= Canard, Nova Scotia, display=title, region:CA-NS_scale:100000 Communities in Kings County, Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia