Parrsboro, Nova Scotia
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Parrsboro is a community located in
Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...
,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
, Canada. A regional service centre for southern Cumberland County, the community is also known for its
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
on the
Minas Basin The Minas Basin () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides. Geography The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits ...
, the Ship's Company Theatre productions, and the
Fundy Geological Museum The Fundy Geological Museum is a geological museum in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, Canada. It first opened in 1993. It has received over 300,000 visitors since it opened, averaging more than 21,000 per year. The museum is part of the Nova Scotia Museu ...
.


History

Before the arrival of
European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...
settlers, Parrsboro was a portage point for
Mikmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Brun ...
travellers along the Minas Basin and Cumberland County river systems. The native inhabitants called the region "Awokum," meaning a 'short-cut' or 'passing-over point.' The first European settlers were the
Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...
in 1670 at the western mouth of the Parrsboro Harbour, near Partridge Island. After they were expelled in 1755, they were replaced by
New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ...
. The centre of settlement gradually shifted from Partridge Island to the sheltered estuary of the Parrsboro River where a harbour and surrounding mills grew. The settlement, at first named Mill Village, was renamed Parrsboro in honour of Nova Scotia Governor
John Parr John Stephen Parr (born 18 November 1952) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, best known for his 1985 single " St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" for the 1985 movie St. Elmo's Fire, charting at No.1 in the US and No.6 in the UK, and ...
in 1784, and the town was incorporated on July 15, 1889. Parrsboro thrived in the mid 19th century as the hub of a string of shipbuilding communities from
Economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
to
Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...
collectively known as the " Parrsboro Shore". The town became a port of registry in 1850 for over 115 locally built schooners as well as giant square riggers, culminating in the largest, the ship Glooscap in 1891. In its peak years of the 1890s, over 1646 ships arrived and departed annually. The Springhill and Parrsboro Railway began service to the town from the coal mining town of Springhill on July 1, 1877; Parrsboro became a coal shipping port for the Springhill mines, primarily serving
Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John () is a port#seaport, seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is Canada's oldest Municipal corporation, incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign ...
. Railway service to Parrsboro was abandoned on June 14, 1958, following several years of declining shipments, several months before the 1958 mining disaster. Throughout the late 19th century and first four decades of the twentieth century, Parrsboro saw daily
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
service across the
Minas Basin The Minas Basin () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides. Geography The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits ...
to the
Annapolis Valley The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a Trough (geology), trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the B ...
ports of Kingsport and
Wolfville Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School. The town is a tourist destination d ...
. The 13th and final vessel in this service, operated by the
Dominion Atlantic Railway The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley. The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) was unusually divers ...
, was the MV ''Kipawo'', which is now permanently beached at Parrsboro and incorporated into the Ship's Company Theatre performance centre. A
Handley Page V/1500 The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers ...
named ''Atlantic'' made a forced landing in Parrsboro July 5, 1919. When the starboard engine failed the pilot,
Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
Brackley saw the lights of the town during the night and landed. After three months, the aircraft was repaired and departed for Greenport,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, Parrsboro's sister town. The local Air Cadet Squadron, 689 Handley Page, is named after this event. On April 10, 1984, Parrsboro resident
Eldon George Eldon Thomas George (May 10, 1931 – November 29, 2018) was a Canadian fossil collector and Amateur geology, amateur geologist who made many significant discoveries on the shores of Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy from the time that he began h ...
located the world's smallest dinosaur footprints at Wasson Bluff, a series of cliffs to the east of Parrsboro Harbour. The prints are now on display at the Parrsboro Rock and Mineral Shop and Museum, owned by George.


Municipal governance

Parrsboro was incorporated as a town on July 15, 1889. On October 5, 2015 the Town Council filed an application for dissolution with the
Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) was an independent tribunal responsible for regulating public utilities and fulfilling a variety of adjudicative functions in Nova Scotia. On April 1, 2025, the NSUARB's responsibilities were transf ...
. The NSURB held public hearings in November 2015 and issued a decision on June 15, 2016 granting the application. The Town of Parrsboro was dissolved effective November 1, 2016 and merged into the larger Municipality of the County of Cumberland.


Climate


Area features

As with much of rural Nova Scotia, the primary industry in Parrsboro is tourism. The community is known for its seasonal theatre productions at the Ship's Company Theatre, fossil and rock hounding attractions, museums, high tides and heritage buildings. The cliffs along the Minas Basin to the east and west of Parrsboro contain fossils of prehistoric animals and plants. Many fossils are on display in local museums. Of the three museums in Parrsboro, two are dedicated to geological history. The
Fundy Geological Museum The Fundy Geological Museum is a geological museum in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, Canada. It first opened in 1993. It has received over 300,000 visitors since it opened, averaging more than 21,000 per year. The museum is part of the Nova Scotia Museu ...
, located along the eastern shore of Parrsboro Harbour, and the Parrsboro Rock and Mineral Shop and Museum, along the western shore, display many unearthed discoveries and provide information on the history of the region's landscape. The third museum is th
Ottawa House
It was built 1775 but contains evidence of Acadian construction as well as several additions. Located along the western coast of Parrsboro Harbour, near Partridge Island, it occupies the original town site and is near the legendary landing site of Henry Sinclair, 1397, and the factual site of
Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...
, 1607. It was the summer home of
Father of Confederation The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...
Sir Charles Tupper Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian Father of Confederation who served as the sixth prime minister of Canada from May 1 to July 8, 1896. As the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led ...
, 1860s, and was named in honour of Canada's Capital. A major focus is Parrsboro's shipbuilding history and the museum has many artifacts that date from the
Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the int ...
. A three-storey clock tower is a prominent feature of Parrsboro's Main St. The tower is part of a big, red-brick government building that was partially opened in 1913 and completed the following year.Centennial Book Committee (1988, 2001). ''Heritage Homes and History of Parrsboro''. Dartmouth: Print Atlantic. The building housed an armoury that conducted military training during both World Wars, a post office, a customs house and a weather station. The federal government sold it to private interests in 1973 when the post office moved to another location. The building stood empty for decades, but was acquired in 2011 by Harvey Lev, a Montreal businessman with interests in heritage real estate. After extensive renovations, Lev and his partner, Judith Bauer, opened a centre called Main & Station in the spring of 2013. It provides spaces for a variety of activities including art exhibits, conferences, workshops, poetry readings and a café. A cultural and community centre, known locally as The Hall, has been a prominent feature of community life for more than a century. It is located in a former Presbyterian Church at 44 King St. that dates from 1884. The Town of Parrsboro purchased the building in 1942 and used it for school purposes. It served as a school auditorium and music room as well as a space for household and vocational training. The extensively renovated building is now run by the Parrsboro Band Association. It features concert performances by the Parrsboro Citizens' Band, one of the oldest such citizens' bands in Canada. Professional musicians also perform at The Hall and there are frequent community "Open Mic" nights. Films are regularly shown in its movie theatre and it provides space for community meetings, theatre rehearsals and fundraising events. Other community features include local churches, a public library, a primary and secondary school, and a 50-watt radio station, Parrsboro Community Radio, heard at 99.1 FM.


Economy

Although Parrsboro has a flourishing tourism industry and several small businesses, the community - common to many
maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...
communities faces economic challenges. The decline of wooden shipbuilding in the late 19th century dealt a severe blow to the local economy, along with neighbouring communities such as Port Greville and Shulie. The community also suffered from the depletion of local forests and the closing of the Springhill coal mines which ended coal shipments and railway service. A further blow was felt from highway route changes in the late 1950s as part of the
Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, 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 A ...
project; Highway 2 was the primary highway from Truro to Amherst until the upgrading (and new construction) of Highway 4 through the
Wentworth Valley The Wentworth Valley is a valley in the Cobequid Mountains of northwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It comprises the lowest elevation pass through the Cobequids. It was named after the colonial governor John Wentworth (1792-1808). Physical geograp ...
to form the present-day expressway Highway 104. These changes contributed to an economic decline in Parrsboro in the latter half of the 20th century after some businesses, such as the O'Regan's garage and car dealership, moved to larger population centres. A number of businesses have remained consistent and sustainable in Parrsboro, owing to the community's central location along the north shore of the Minas Basin. There is a number of small coastal fishing operations in the area and the community is also the base of operations for several large
blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...
harvesting companies, as well as being home to Granby Furnaces, a firm which has found a success in producing home heating appliances (oil furnaces, cast boilers, heat exchangers, etc) for export. Small businesses in or near Parrsboro include the Crossroads Co-op supermarket, a
Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...
franchise, Harrison’s Home Hardware, an
Irving Oil Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian privately owned intergenerational gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company, a subsidiary of the parent company Irving Group of Companies, one of the largest "private conglomerates" in North Amer ...
gas station, a convenience store, an art gallery called The Destination Gallery,
nine-hole golf course
a skating arena, a bottle depot, and a restaurant/tavern. There are many seasonal accommodations businesses in the Parrsboro area to serve the tourism industry, which primarily operates during the summer and fall seasons. In 2006, Headz Gamez, a
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
-based
board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
manufacturer, announced that it was relocating 1,500 manufacturing jobs from its facilities in China to Parrsboro. Promises of manufacturing facilities, employee housing and recreation facilities were made; however, the project was cancelled later that year after the CEO sold off his personal company stock and resigned his position. The company declared bankruptcy in early 2007.


Notable residents

* Walter Harris Callow *
Sir Charles Tupper Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian Father of Confederation who served as the sixth prime minister of Canada from May 1 to July 8, 1896. As the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led ...
*
Abraham Pineo Gesner Abraham Pineo Gesner (May 2, 1797 – April 29, 1864) was a Nova Scotian and New Brunswickan physician and geologist who invented kerosene. Gesner was born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia (now called Chipmans Corner) and lived much of his life ...
*
Eldon George Eldon Thomas George (May 10, 1931 – November 29, 2018) was a Canadian fossil collector and Amateur geology, amateur geologist who made many significant discoveries on the shores of Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy from the time that he began h ...
* Charles Brenton Huggins


Demographics

The
2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
showed a population of 1327 living in the former Town of Parrsboro living in 662 of its 817 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,205. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.


Parrsboro's sister cities

* Greenport,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, United States. * Blue Lake,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States.


See also

*
List of municipalities in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is the Population of Canada by province and territory, seventh-most populous provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada with 969,383 residents as of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 Census of Population, and the List of Can ...


References


External links


Town of Parrsboro
{{Authority control Communities in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia Former towns in Nova Scotia Populated places disestablished in 2016 Populated coastal places in Canada