Seal Harbour is a community 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 ...

, located in

Guysborough County Guysborough County is a county in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History Taking its name from the Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Township of Guysborough, which was named in honour of Sir Guy Carleton, 1st B ...

. Located on the east side of Isaac's Harbour, it was named for the abundance of seals once found there. Founded as a fishing settlement, it became a

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

community with the initial discovery in the area in 1867, with further discoveries in 1892. Gold mining near Seal Harbour peaked in 1904–1907. The mines briefly reopened from 1939 to 1942 and then closed, leaving fishing and lumbering as the main industries. Some gold exploration is still carried out in the area by the

Orex Exploration Orex Exploration is a former Canadian gold mining company that conducted exploration work on mining properties it owned in the Goldboro and Guysborough County areas of Nova Scotia. The properties owned by Orex were the sites of the former Bosto ...

company. The harbour faces the nearby Country Island, the location of several shipwrecks, most notably the pirate ship ''Saladin'', a British barque with a cargo of silver which ran aground and sank on Country Island after it was seized in a bloody mutiny in 1844.

References

*Bethany Keddy, ''Where seagulls soared: memories of the way we were in Seal Harbour, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia'', coordinated by Kay (Langley) Keddy; directed by Rev. Gary Manthorne. Victoria, B.C.: Pleasant Memories Cookbook Company (1998).
Nova Scotia Archives: Place Names of Nova Scotia, "Seal Harbour, Guysborough"
Communities in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia {{GuysboroughNS-geo-stub