Shubie Park is a urban park in Dartmouth,

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 ...

maintained by the

Halifax Regional Municipality Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

. Heavily forested, Shubie Park is roughly linear in shape as it is bounded on the north and west by Highway 118 expressway and on the south and east by

Lake Micmac Lake Micmac is a freshwater lake located in the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. Located entirely within the community of Dartmouth, Lake Micmac is also known as 'Second Lake' for its position in the Shubenacadie Canal syste ...

and the southern edge of Lake Charles. A portion of the abandoned

Shubenacadie Canal The Shubenacadie Canal is a canal in central Nova Scotia, Canada. It links Halifax Harbour with the Bay of Fundy by way of the Shubenacadie River and Shubenacadie Grand Lake. Begun in 1826, it was not completed until 1861 and was closed in 1871. ...

passes through the park, from which the park takes its name. The main soil is a well to excessively drained stony sandy loam

podzol In soil science, podzols are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of hum ...

of the Halifax Series.http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/publications/surveys/ns/ns13b/index.html, Soil Survey of Halifax County Nova Scotia The land comprising Shubie Park was part of a larger estate called "Countryview" that had been established in 1722 as the King's wood lot, providing masts for the

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 F ...

. In 1783, the Countryview estate became the first royal land grant in Dartmouth, issued by

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

to naval mast maker Samuel Greenwood. Since then, the land has exchanged hands several times, and in recent decades became home to industry including a rock quarry, asphalt plant and construction and demolition dump. At the time that Highway 118 was extended through the area on the northwest side of Lake Micmac during the 1960s-1970s, the remaining undeveloped land of the Countryview Estate bordering the greenbelt between the highway and lake was set aside as a municipal park for the City of Dartmouth. The municipality developed the park primarily as a green space, although an area bordering Lake Charles was established with a beach, day use picnic area and campground - all operated since a 1996 municipal amalgamation by the Halifax Regional Municipality. Shubie Park canal

Shubie Park contains trails and an interpretive area called the Fairbanks Centre next to the canal at the location of a series of locks between Lake Micmac and Lake Charles. The Fairbanks Centre features a scale model of canal lock mechanisms and various displays. The wooded trails of the Shubie Canal Park follow a remaining section of the canal and include part of the

Trans-Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail extends ...

Camping services

Next to Shubie Park is the municipality-owned, privately managed Shubie Campground. It currently has 101 sites, consisting of 29 unserviced and 72 serviced sites.

References

{{Reflist

External links

HalifaxTrails.ca - Shubie Park Guide
at

Government of Nova Scotia The Government of Nova Scotia (french: Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse, gd, Riaghaltas Alba Nuadh) refers to the provincial government of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is one of Canada's ...

Shubie Park map
(Halifax Regional Municipality) Parks in Halifax, Nova Scotia