Yarmouth

History

The townsite may possibly have been visited by Leif Ericson. A runic stone was found at the nearby village of Overton in 1812. It is interpreted by some to have been carved by Ericson, while others feel the markings are natural scratches gradually enhanced over the years. The stone is preserved at the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives. Originally inhabited by the Mi'kmaq, the Yarmouth area was known as "Keespongwitk" meaning "Lands End" due to its isolation being located at the end of Nova Scotia.[3]

The region was visited in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, who named it Cape Fourchu, and it became a French fishing settlement. In 1759 settlers came to the townsite from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and there is speculation that they named it Yarmouth after their former home. The town was founded in 1761, when a larger group of settlers came from Sandwich, Massachusetts. They were then followed by Acadians originally from the Grand Pré district who returned from exile in 1767. Substantial numbers of United Empire Loyalists arrived in 1785. Yarmouth's waterfront circa 1910 showing the railway and steamship connections which emerged in the late 19th century.Through the 19th century it was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point boasting more tonnage per capita than any other port in the world.[4] Yarmouth ships were found in every major port in the world including ships noted for courageous crews such as the ship Research in 1861 and ships noted for great size such as the ship County of Yarmouth in 1884, one of the largest wooden ships ever built in Canada.

John Patch, the son of one Yarmouth sea captain developed and built one of the first modern screw propeller in 1832 (4 years before John Ericsson's patent). First demonstrated in Yarmouth Harbour during the summer of 1833, Patch was unsuccessful in a patent application in that year, but he continued to improve his propeller and received an American patent in 1849[5] which drew praise in American scientific circles.[6] However by 1849 there were multiple competing versions of the screw propeller. Patch never received money or recognition and died a poor man at Yarmouth in 1861.[7]

As wooden shipbuilding declined in the late 19th century, Yarmouth's shipowners re-invested into factories, steamships and railways such as the Western Counties Railway which evolved into the Dominion Atlantic Railway. While steamships had led to the decline of Yarmouth's mighty wooden shipbuilding industry, they also made the port a vital connection between the new Nova Scotia rail lines and steamers for Boston and New York, a role which continued with Yarmouth's ferry connections until recent years.

Also, in 1939, examiners at Yarmouth's Merchant Marine Institution made seafaring history by issuing master's papers to Molly Kool, the first female ship captain in the Western World.

[edit] World War II history
RCAF Station Yarmouth was originally opened in 1940 as three separate training sites (the East Camp, the West Camp and the Air Base) under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The East Camp was home to a detachment of the Royal Air Force's No. 34 Operational Training Unit (from RCAF Station Pennfield Ridge), who trained bomber crews, as well as the Royal Navy's No. 1 Naval Air Gunners School from 1 January 1943 to 30 March 1945. The West Camp was home to the RCAF's Anti-Submarine Bomber Reconnaissance and several Eastern Air Command Bomber Reconnaissance Squadrons, such as 162 Squadron. The Air Base was home to the 9th Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery, various RCAF and RAF Bomber Squadrons and an Army Co-operation Reconnaissance Flight. Its primary function was as an administrative and logistical support base to the RAF and RCAF squadrons in the area, in addition to providing a Weather Information Section, an Armament Section and a firing range. Several smaller installations associated with the air station were located in the area: a bombing range at Port Maitland, a fuel depot at Digby, and radar detachments at Plymouth, Tusket and Bear Point, Port Mouton and Rockville. In 1944, a detachment of the US Navy briefly came to Yarmouth to test the effectiveness of a blimp service. After a crash, the RCAF decided against this venture. RCAF Station Yarmouth closed in 1945. The airfield was sold to the Department of Transport in 1946 and became the Yarmouth Airport. The infantry base (known as Camp 60) on Parade Street also provided basic and artillery training for 20,000 men during the war.[8]

A Hudson bomber from Royal Canadian Air Force Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron 113 in Yarmouth became the first aircraft of RCAF's Eastern Air Command to destroy a submarine, sinking U-754 about 100 mi (160 km) south of Yarmouth on July 31, 1942.[9]

[edit] Tourism
Tourism has been a major industry in Yarmouth since the 1880s when Loran Ellis Baker founded the Yarmouth Steamship Company. Steamship and railway promotion based in Yarmouth created the first tourism marketing in Nova Scotia.[10] Baker's steamships operated between Yarmouth and Boston until 1900, when the company was purchased by the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The DAR and Halifax and Southwestern Railway offered connections for passengers arriving in Yarmouth with steamship services operating to New York City and Boston. This service continued until the 1950s. Canadian National Railways instituted a ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine in the 1950s and this was continued by CN Marine and Marine Atlantic until 1997.

In the 1970s an American tourist cruise company, Prince of Fundy Cruises, began operating a conventional cruise-ferry between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth. This operation continued as Scotia Prince Cruises until April 2005. In June 2006, the ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland was resumed by The Cat on weekends, whereas on weekdays The Cat sailed between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor daily. In December 2009, Bay Ferries announced that The Cat ferry service would end because it would not receive additional funding from the provincial government.[11]

In August 2004, a record mako shark was caught off the coast of Yarmouth during the Yarmouth Shark Scramble. It weighed 1,082 lb (491 kg) and set a new Canadian record. It is considered one of the largest mako sharks ever caught.[12]

[edit] Culture
Fishing boats in YarmouthThe Western Branch of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is located in Yarmouth. The town is also home to the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives which preserves the history of the town and surrounding county and operates the Killam Brothers building on the waterfront. The Firefighters Museum, part of the Nova Scotia Museum system and the privately run Sweeney Fisheries Museum are also located in Yarmouth.

The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library, founded in 1963, serves as the town's public library. It is the largest branch of Western Counties Regional Library and houses the regional library's headquarters.

A popular but unsupported cultural belief in Yarmouth holds that the American composer Meredith Willson wrote his well-known song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel.[13]

[edit] Buildings and structures
The Victorian Gothic style Eakin/Hatfield House in YarmouthYarmouth is known for some of the most exuberant examples of Victorian houses styles in the Maritimes, a legacy of the wealthy captains and shipowners of the town seafaring Golden Age.[14] A heritage district preserves several blocks of these residences including the Lovitt House and Eakin/Hatfield House. On the waterfront two historic warehouses survive from the sailing era such as the Killam Brothers Building.

Yarmouth's Main Street is marked by several distinctive Victorian commercial buildings such as the turreted Yarmouth Block Building.[15] The largest building in the town is a 1970s hotel, the Rodd Grand Hotel. It is built on the site of the original Grand Hotel, a Second Empire hotel which was the town's landmark for many years.

A landmark for Yarmouth Harbour is the large Cape Forchu Lighthouse which is located a few kilometeres way at the headland of Cape Forchu, the peninsula that guards Yarmouth Harbour. The tall "apple core" style is a notable example of modernist style light tower.[16]