Mount Hanley is a Canadian

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 in

Annapolis County Annapolis County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia located in the western part of the province located on the Bay of Fundy. The county seat is Annapolis Royal. History Established August 17, 1759, by Order in Council, Annapoli ...

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 ...

. It is the birthplace of the mariner

Joshua Slocum Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wr ...

and of Clara Belle Marshall, the first woman to graduate from

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...

in 1879.

Geography

Mount Hanley is located about nine kilometers northwest of the town of Middleton. Mount Hanley occupies the north slope of the North Mountain facing the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

at an elevation of 150 metres above sea level.

History

The community was settled about 1784 mostly by

United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America duri ...

and is thought to be named after Rev. Thomas Hanley Chipman, a leader of the surrounding Wilmot Township. The name is recorded in various sources as Handely, Hanly, and Handly. In the 19th century the community’s farms and sawmills prospered, finding ready markets for their goods shipping from the nearby harbours on the Bay of Fundy at Cottage Cove and Port George. The community at one time boasted sawmills, blacksmiths, a grist mill, a cheese factory, blacksmiths, a general store and a post office (1870-1957) At its peak, the village was once described as the "most prosperous and populous in Wilmot Township." Some agriculture and forestry remain today although most residents work at jobs in the

Annapolis Valley The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the Bay of Fundy. St ...

or are retired. The population, estimated today at 20 people, is small enough compared to its past that some have identified it as a virtual ghost town.Parker p. 161 Joe Banks, part-time

epigrapher Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

found a stone with markings in Mount Hanley that he believes are

Ogam Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

script and dates from the 5th century AD, evidence he claims of an ancient Irish settlement in Mount Hanley. However archaeologists believe it to be only a toppled property marker and identify the markings as scrapes from plow blades.

Landmarks

An original log school built in 1784 was replaced in 1850 and served until 1963 when rural schools were consolidated. The school is now the Mount Hanley Schoolhouse Museum and is a provincially registered heritage property, noted as being an early example of architecture based on

John William Dawson Sir John William Dawson (1820–1899) was a Canadian geologist and university administrator. Life and work John William Dawson was born on 13 October 1820 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where he attended and graduated from Pictou Academy. Of Scotti ...

's pamphlet "School architecture - abridged from Barnard's School architecture." A Baptist church built in 1861 still sees seasonal services. Mount Hanley shares close links with the adjacent North Mountain communities of Outram, Port George and Moshers Corner and the four communities share a Recreational Centre at Port George.

Notable residents

Mount Hanley was the birthplace on February 20, 1844 of

, the mariner who was the first to sail solo around the world and wrote the classic book ''

Sailing Alone Around the World ''Sailing Alone Around the World'' is a sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum in 1900 about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop ''Spray''. Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. The book was an immediate ...

''. Slocum learned to read and write at Mount Hanley School where today his origins are commemorated by a plaque and displays at the Mount Hanley Schoolhouse Museum. While at Mount Hanley, Slocum had his first experiences on the water on short schooner voyages from the nearby coves of Cottage Cove and Port George. He left Mount Hanley when he was eight years old when his family moved to

Brier Island Brier Island is an island in the Bay of Fundy in Digby County, Nova Scotia. Geography The island is the westernmost part of Nova Scotia and the southern end of the North Mountain ridge with Long Island lying immediately northeast; both islands ...

. Mount Hanley is also the birthplace of Clara Belle Marshall, the first woman to graduate from

in 1879. The English-born singer and actor

Noel Harrison Noel John Christopher Harrison (29 January 1934 – 19 October 2013) was an English actor and singer who had a hit singing "The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, and was a member of the British Olympic skiing team in the 1950s. He was the son of ...

lived in there in the 1970s and named his 1979 album ''Mount Hanley Song'' after the community.

References

;Sources *
'Of days gone by: Shoreline communities of yesteryear - Mount Hanley', Anne Ottow, May 7, 2007 ''Fundy Communities Development Association''

Nova Scotia Historic Places Initiative Database

C. Bruce Fergusson, "Mount Hanley", ''Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia'' Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 456
* ''Sailing Alone Around the World'' Joshua Slocum, 1900, p. 1-2. {{coord, 44, 58, 06, N, 65, 10, 29, W, region:CA-NS_type:city, display=title Communities in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia Ghost towns in Nova Scotia