Salt Springs 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 located in the central-western 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 ...

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.

Geography

The community shares a valley with the upper reaches of the West River (of Pictou), with the surrounding mountains being the eastern extension of the

Cobequid Hills The Cobequid Mountains, also sometimes referred to as the Cobequid Hills, is a Canadian mountain range located in Nova Scotia in the mainland portion of the province. Geologic history Geologically, the Cobequid Mountains are considered part of th ...

. The community is directly east of Mount Thom and is named after saline springs which bubble up from the foot of the mountain.

History

Pictou County and much of northeastern Nova Scotia came to be settled by Scottish immigrants fleeing the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

during the late 18th century and into the early 19th century. Numerous small family farms were established after clearing the abundant first-growth

Acadian Forest The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the des ...

. The Salt Springs area was settled by the 1780s and a property referred to as the "Salt Springs Lot" was settled by the early 19th century. Attempts were made in 1813 and 1823 to recover some of the salt from the springs. The community became home to a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church in 1822 (St. Luke's) and a seceding group which formed under the

Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to: * Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical * Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...

in 1845-1846 (Ebenezer). The St. Luke's and Ebenezer congregations reunited in 1908 (under St. Luke's) and the entire congregation merged into the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

in 1929. Industrialization came in 1825 when a clothing or

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

mill was established in 1825 at the confluence of Six and Eight Mile Brooks. A

carding machine Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered wit ...

was subsequently established at Salt Springs by 1832. A

woolen mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods s ...

was established over the location of the fulling mill by 1879. Salt Springs was on the

stage coach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

route from

Pictou Pictou ( ; Canadian Gaelic: ''Baile Phiogto'') is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km (6 miles) north of the larger town of New Gla ...

to Halifax and a hotel named Twelve Mile House was built in 1838. This was renamed Prince of Wales Hotel after the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

( HRH Prince Albert) stayed on a brief visit through the area in 1860 and it closed around 1900. A post office was established in 1864 and Salt Springs became home to a school in 1909 when a replacement to the Six Mile Brook school, which had been lost to fire, was built in the community. The population of the community in 1956 was 75. In the early 1960s, 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 ...

(

Highway 104 Route 104, or Highway 104, may refer to: Brazil * BR-104 Canada * New Brunswick Route 104 * Nova Scotia Highway 104 (Trans-Canada Highway) * Prince Edward Island Route 104 * Quebec Route 104 China * China National Highway 104 Costa Rica * ...

) was built through the community, causing outmigration. Today's population is roughly 50 inhabitants, most of whom commute to work in nearby centres of

New Glasgow New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait. The town's population was 9,075 ...

and industrial Pictou County, or west to

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

Trivia

On September 20, 2005, former Salt Springs resident

J.D. Fortune Jason Dean Bennison (born September 1, 1973), better known by his stage name J.D. Fortune, is a Canadian singer and songwriter best known for his six-year tenure as the frontman of the Australian rock band INXS. He received worldwide recognition ...

, was named lead singer of internationally acclaimed

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

band

INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...

after winning the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

reality television show '' Rock Star: INXS''. The maternal family of Fortune, who goes by his mother's

maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...

, hails from the Salt Springs area and he returned with his mother at a young age from his

birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to be raised in this Pictou County community.

References

Salt Springs on Destination Nova Scotia
{{coord, 45, 32, 8.61, N, 62, 53, 45.91, W, display=title Communities in Pictou County