Country Harbour (formerly named Mocodome) is a

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 de ...

community in

Guysborough County Guysborough County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History Taking its name from the Township of Guysborough, which was named in honour of Sir Guy Carleton, Guysborough County was created when Sydney County (Antigonish Cou ...

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. The community is situated on a large deep natural harbour of the same name and is located along the province's Eastern Shore close to Canso, Nova Scotia. Country Harbour has several districts along Route 316: * Country Harbour Lake * Cross Roads Country Harbour * Middle Country Harbour * Country Harbour Mines The entire population of the area is less than 1,000 permanent residents.

History

Country Harbour was reportedly considered by British colonial authorities for the provincial capital and military base that was ultimately sited at Halifax. There are several sites dedicated to preserving the heritage of the early European settlers, including a restoration of a small village (probably home to less than 20 families) and Mount Misery. Mount Misery was an early agricultural community which was renowned for its harsh winter conditions, resulting in the death of almost all original settlers within their first year of emigration. Mount Misery is connected to Country Harbour Mines via a

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

operated by the provincial Department of Transportation and Public Works, providing convenient access to the neighbouring community of Port Bickerton.

Attack at Country Harbour

During

Father Le Loutre's War Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the Br ...

, on February 21, 1753, nine Mi'kmaq from present-day Antigonish (Nartigouneche) in canoes attacked an English vessel from Canso, Nova Scotia which had a crew of four at Country Harbour, Nova Scotia. The Mi'kmaq fired on them and drove them toward the shore. Other natives joined in and boarded the schooner, forcing them to run their vessel into an inlet. The two English men witnessed the Mi'kmaq kill and scalp two of their crew. The Mi'kmaq killed two English men and took two others captive for seven weeks. After seven weeks in captivity, on April 8, the two English men killed six Mi'kmaq and managed to escape. In response, on the night of April 21,

Jean-Baptiste Cope Jean Baptiste Cope (Kopit in Mi’kmaq meaning ‘beaver’) was also known as Major Cope, a title he was probably given from the French military, the highest rank given to Mi’kmaq. Cope was the sakamaw (chief) of the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenaca ...

and the Mi'kmaq attacked another 10 crew English schooner in a naval battle between Outique Island and Isle Madame in which the Mi'kmaq attacked an English schooner. There were nine English men and one Acadian who was the British interpreter. The Mi'kmaq killed the English and let the Acadian named Anthony Casteel off at Port Toulouse, where the Mi'kmaq sank the schooner after looting it. Despite the collapse of peace on the eastern shore, the British did not formally renounce the Treaty of 1752 until 1756.

Economy

Traditional industries have included

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

and

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 fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

. Many residents have established their fishing businesses in Port Bickerton due to the geographic advantages provided by that port, however several

deep-sea 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 ...

vessels use Country Harbour for transferring their cargo to land-based transport. Country Harbour once had an extensive gold mining industry. However, the last serious attempt at mining this resource took place in the early 1980s with the opening of the Forest Hills Gold Mine. Nothing of significant value was recovered from this operation, and it closed after several years. In neighbouring Goldboro, the

Sable Offshore Energy Project The Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) is a consortium based in Halifax, Nova Scotia which explores for and produced natural gas near Sable Island on the edge of the Nova Scotian continental shelf in eastern Canada. SOEP produced between 400 ...

pipeline comes ashore from

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

fields 200 km offshore at

Sable Island Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island ...

. There, a gas liquids separation plant operates which sends gas liquids on a pipeline to a plant at Point Tupper and the

Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline The Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline is a natural gas transmission pipeline that runs from the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) gas plant in Goldboro, Nova Scotia, Canada to Dracut, Massachusetts, United States. The mainline pipeline runs ...

carries the pure natural gas westward to markets in the

Maritimes The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of C ...

and

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Country Harbour has few significant employment opportunities aside from the traditional primary resource industries. Many residents tend to commute to

Antigonish , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = File:St Ninian's Cathedral Antigonish Spring.jpg , image_caption = St. Ninian's Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of Antigonish.p ...

or even as far as

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 ...

Port Hawkesbury Port Hawkesbury (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Chlamhain'') is a municipality in southern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. While within the historical county of Inverness, it is not part of the Municipality of Inverness County. History ...

and Halifax for employment, however the majority of the community is retirees. The area is within the district of Guysborough but is served by St. Mary's Education Centre and St. Mary's Academy in nearby

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

Notable residence

* Maria Morris Miller - painter

Endnote

Citations

References

* * * *

External links

Country Harbour - Loyalists Trail Country Harbour on Destination Nova Scotia
{{coord, 45, 16, 21.65, N, 61, 52, 40.38, W, region:CA-NS_type:city, display=title Communities in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia Mining communities in Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia Conflicts in Nova Scotia