Tusket is a small

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 ...

community located in

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo- Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It c ...

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 ...

on route 308. Argyle Township Court House and Gaol

History

"Neketaouksit", the Mi'kmaq word for the "Great Forked Tidal River", evolved to what is now called Tusket. The village was originally settled by

Acadian 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 de ...

s before the British launched the Cape Sable Campaign. Afterward the community was also settled by

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 ...

from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in 1785, after the

Great Expulsion The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian pe ...

. In the 19th century the village was very prosperous as a major ship building centre. In 1801, the town rescued those who remained from the ship wreck of the Industry, after drifting in lifeboats for 5 days in the Bay of Fundy.Naval Chronicle.
/ref> The Old Tusket Courthouse, built in 1805 and featuring a bell tower, is the oldest standing courthouse in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The first Nova Scotian to die in aerial combat in World War II was from Tusket (Jack Elmer Hatfield,

No. 264 Squadron RAF No. 264 Squadron RAF, also known as No. 264 (Madras Presidency) Squadron, was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. World War I The squadron was first formed during the First World War, from two former Royal Naval Air Service flights, No. 439 ...

). The French-speaking high school

École secondaire de Par-en-Bas École secondaire de Par-en-Bas (commonly known as Par-en-bas, PEB or ESPB) is a Canadian French high school located in Tusket, Yarmouth County in the province of Nova Scotia, for Acadian students. The school hosts grades 7 through 12, with appr ...

is located in the community. The

Université Sainte-Anne Université Sainte-Anne is a French-language university in Pointe-de-l'Église, Nova Scotia, Canada. It and the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick are the only French-language universities in the Maritime Provinces. History It was founde ...

has a campus located in Tusket as well, in order to serve the

community in surrounding areas. There are many places, past and present, which use the word Tusket: Tusket (the village itself), Tusket River, Tusket Falls, Tusket Islands, Tusket Hill (present-day Amiraults Hill), Tusket Wedge (present-day Wedgeport), Tusket Forks (present-day Quinan) and villages that used to be called Upper Tusket and Lower Tusket. Present day Tusket is at the head of the Tusket River estuary, where high tide salt water meets the fresh water flow of the Tusket River. The Tusket River and Basin presents a 32 kilometre wide basin with a very irregular 500 kilometre coastline. Points, peninsulas, ridges and islands are separated by tidal channels, inlets, estuaries, bays, salt marshes and tidal flats. The salt marshes are unique since they encompass 8000 acres, or one third the total acreage of natural salt marsh in the province. They are highly productive and play an important role in the ecology of our coastline and the off-shore waters. They also played a major role in the settlement of the Tusket Basin by the Acadian people. The Acadians made drainage ditches on the natural salt water marshes to be able to harvest the hay growing there. They were renowned for the construction of dykes and aboiteaux to produce hay-lands. Hay stacks are still visible today, in our region. One such aboiteau can be viewed at the

West Pubnico Acadian Museum West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

in West Pubnico, Nova Scotia. It was discovered and retrieved from a local salt marsh. These waters are laden with nutrients, after having filtered through 32 kilometres of river, and tons of dead plant matter and grasses. The Mi'kmaq, who lived inland, travelled by canoe down the Tusket River to the sea. They depended, seasonally, on the availability of some staples. They harvested seals, sea bird eggs, cod, shellfish, smelts, gaspereau, sturgeon, salmon, eels, tomcod, waterfowl, beaver, otter, rabbits, deer, moose, caribou and bear. All of these still inhabit the Tusket River system, except for the caribou.

References

{{reflist 1850 establishments in Nova Scotia Communities in Yarmouth County Populated places established in 1785