50 plus DC - Marine Drive

Marine Drive

If you finish the Lighthouse Trail at Halifax then drive out the other side of the Regional Municipality you will find yourself at the start of Marine Drive. The coast here is very similar to that on the Lighthouse Trail, and you will find both historic towns and lighthouses. The only difference is that there are perhaps fewer towns and villages along this section of the coast, giving it a wilder, more remote feel.

Guysborough Old Courthouse

Small, local museums seem to be a speciality of Marine Drive. At Guysborough. the Old Courthouse dating from 1843 has been turned into a museum that chronicles much of the community’s rich and colourful history. A French trader called Nicholas Denys established a fishing station here in 1636 and called it Chedabouctou, which grew into a village of 150 Acadians. British settlement started in 1760, augmented in the 1780s by the arrival of American Loyalists including a significant black community. Guysborough was named after Sir Guy Carleton, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America and the governor general of Canada during the 1780s.

Fisherman's Life Museum

Nearer to Halifax and close to Jeddore Oyster Pond is another small local history museum. The Fisherman’s Life Museum has been set up to show how life was lived on the coast of Nova Scotia in the early 1900s. In this house Ervin and Ethelda Myers brought up 13 daughters. Ervin was an inshore fisherman and the family also grew root crops. The house has been restored to the way it would have looked in the Myers’ time, and guides in period costumes explain what life was like for the Myers.

Cumminger Bros Store & Renova Cottage, Sherbrooke Village

Founded as Saint Mary's River in 1800, in 1815 this fishing and timber village changed its name to Sherbrooke after the then Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. In 1869 gold was discovered in the nearby hills and for 20 years the village boomed. When the mines closed, the village went into decline. In 1969 work started to restore part of Sherbrooke Village to the way it would have looked 1800s. Over 80 buildings have been preserved and 25 are open to the public. The General Store shown here was owned in 1860 by John and Samuel Cumminger. Renova Cottage was built by Samuel, but later became a Doctor’s surgery. Click Tab 2 to see the interior of the Cumminger Bros Store.

Queensport Lighthouse

It may not be the Lighthouse Trail, but Marine Drive still has plenty of lighthouses. We have chosen the Queensport Lighthouse to represent them because of its dramatic location on a rocky island. The first lighthouse was built here on Rook Island in 1882 to guide fishing boats in to the harbour at Queensport. The original lighthouse was replaced by the current one in 1933 and the light was automated in 1968. In the early 1990s there was a plan to demolish the lighthouse and replace it with an automated beacon, but local people responded by buying the lighthouse to save it from such a fate.

Whitman House, Canso

And to finish off, another local museum. The Whitman House built in 1885 has been turned into a combined museum and tourist information centre. The Whitman House Museum chronicles the history of Canso Town and eastern Guysborough County. On display are period furniture, photographs and items from the old Western Union office. The finale of any visit to the museum has to be the bird's-eye view of Canso from the widow's walk on the rooftop.

McDonald Bros Sawmill, Sherbrooke Village

While gold mining went through boom and bust, the timber trade continued around Sherbrooke Village and is still a significant industry today. Away from the main village is a working reconstruction of a water powered sawmill. Although it is a reconstruction, the sawmill provides the most realistic insight into Victorian Nova Scotia in the whole village. The sight of a huge log being sliced, the smell of the sawdust and the feel of the building shaking under the movement of the massive machinery is mesmerising.