Road trips are always filled with stops at quirky, off-the-beaten-track museums and unusual historic sites. This road trip is no different. When we arrived in Antigonish, we set off for a quick visit to the
Antigonish Heritage Museum which is housed in a former railway station constructed in 1905. The museum houses artifacts, tools, archival material, old photographs, and other miscellany like that which you would normally find in a quirky, out-of-the-way museum.
The museum's most interesting exhibit was on the different groups of people who settled in the region. The name "Nova Scotia" means New Scotland in Latin, and the province has a very strong Scottish presence (and even some speakers of Scottish Gaelic!), but the region's first western settlers were French, who developed their own sub-culture and began to identify as Acadians. Of particular note were black Loyalists, many of whom were former slaves from America, who served in the British forces during the American Revolution in exchange for their freedom and a plot of land in Nova Scotia. Sadly, these slaves were not always awarded the land they were promised. The influence of these groups, as well as the native Mi'kmaq peoples and Dutch immigrants in the 1950's, made this region a true melting pot.
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| Outside the museum |
This poster outlines the different groups who settled in Antigonish and Nova Scotia
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| A quirky museum artifact |
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