Port Hood ( Mi'kmawi'simk: ''Kekwiamkek'') is an unincorporated place in the

Municipality of the County of Inverness The Municipality of the County of Inverness is a county municipality on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It provides local government to about 17,000 residents of the historical county of the same name, except for the incorporated town ...

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. It is an administrative centre and a service centre for the surrounding area. It is also the site of a registered historic place, Peter Smyth House. Port Hood is the Capital of the County of Inverness, and is home to its Court House Port Hood Beach is known for its warm waters and for the nearby Port Hood Station Provincial Park.

History

The

Miꞌkmaq 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 Bru ...

called it Kekwiamkek, meaning "at the place where sand moves slowly," or

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

. The first European colonists, the French, called it Juste-au-Corps, meaning

waistcoat A waistcoat ( UK and Commonwealth, or ; colloquially called a weskit) or vest ( US and Canada) is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wea ...

. The French quarried stone for the

Fortress of Louisbourg The Fortress of Louisbourg () is a tourist attraction as a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century Kingdom of France, French fortress at Louisbourg, Nov ...

and built ships at the site. After the English took over

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

, it was renamed for naval commander Samuel Hood. Port Hood experienced an economic boom from 1880 to 1910, with coal mining, fishing and marine trade. During the first half of the 1900s, it was served by the

Inverness and Richmond Railway The Inverness and Richmond Railway was a railway that operated on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia from 1901 to the 1980s. It is now a rail trail for snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and human-powered transport called the Celtic Shores Coastal ...

. A fire in July 1942 destroyed much of the town's business district. The community was home to the Port Hood Consolidated School, which closed in 2000 and was replaced by Bayview Education Centre.

Geography

It is located on Trunk 19 (the "Ceilidh Trail"), approximately 30-minutes drive north from the

Canso Causeway The Canso Causeway () is a rock-fill causeway crossing the Strait of Canso, provides access by road to the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence or Cape Breton Island to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is , carrying t ...

which links Cape Breton Island to the

Nova Scotia peninsula The Nova Scotia peninsula is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of North America. It is called ''Enmigtaqamu'g'' in the Mi'kmaw language. Location The Nova Scotia peninsula is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada and is connected to the ...

Climate

Notable people

Al MacInnis Allan MacInnis (born July 11, 1963) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 23 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames (1981–1994) and St. Louis Blues (1994–2004). A first round selection ...

: professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who has made generous donations to the local arena, now renamed the Al MacInnis Sports Centre.

References

External links

{{Authority control Communities in Inverness County, Nova Scotia Unincorporated communities in Nova Scotia Populated places in the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Nova Scotia Populated coastal places in Canada