Pictou Island is a Canadian

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

located in the

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western sh ...

approximately north 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 ...

and south of

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

. The island has a length of 9.5 km, a width of 2.5 km and a total area of approximately 12.8 km². The island is administratively part of

Pictou County Pictou County is a county in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1835, and was formerly a part of Halifax County from 1759 to 1835. It had a population of 43,657 people in 2021, a decline of 0.2 percent from 2016. Furthermo ...

. The island's highest elevation is above sea level, and its current full-time resident population () stands at 28, with the seasonal population rising and lowering. The island is heavily wooded, with several clearings on the more sheltered south side. There is a small year-round population spread throughout the island, of which the majority make their living by

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

. The island has a public

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

located at the west end and a breakwater for mooring at the east end. There is also a community centre,

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

, a Pioneer Cemetery, fire department and several lighthouses located on the island. Pictou Island receives no electrical power from the mainland. The residents supply their own energy with

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

windmills A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some par ...

and generators. There are no stores of any kind on the island, but residents can email or phone a grocery order into Sobeys (a national grocery chain), and the order will arrive by ferry or plane depending on the time of year. A one-room public school operates at the Pictou Island Community Centre, with a single part-time teacher for students up to grade 6, after which students begin correspondence studies. Generally, island students enroll in schools on the mainland of Nova Scotia once they begin grade 11, as many post-secondary programs do not accept a correspondence studies diploma. Map showing Location of Pictou Island

The Community Centre is also home to a provincially sponsored CAP Site (see http://cap.ic.gc.ca/index.htm ), which provides internet access to the public. Most island residents have access in their homes, through dial-up, and some are hoping for 'high-speed' soon. A seasonal passenger-only ferry service begins operation in May and stops in November; Cessna airplanes operating out of an airport at nearby Trenton serve the island in the winter with

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

and supplies. There is one main dirt road on the island that runs from one end of the island to the other that is maintained by the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and also serves as a landing strip for the airplanes.

History

Pictou Island was claimed on October 17, 1809, by Charles Morris. That same year it was granted by the Crown to Admiral Sir

Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane Admiral of the Blue Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane (born Alexander Forrester Cochrane; 23 April 1758 – 26 January 1832) was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of admiral. He had previously captaine ...

, likely as a reward for

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

victories secured under his command in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. Permanent European settlement of the island began in the 1810s.

External links

Topographical info

Pictou Island Website

Aerial Photos of Pictou Island, Pictou, Caribou and surrounding area. (www.avinova.ca)

Featured in The Guardian
{{coord, 45, 48, 50, N, 62, 33, 25, W, region:CA_type:isle_scale:50000, name=Pictou Island, display=title Islands of Nova Scotia Communities in Pictou County Landforms of Pictou County