Flint. Yes, that Flint. But before it became globally famous for not having a clean drinking water supply, it was the mother of America’s early car industry until the Great Depression. The First National Bank of Flint financed the files of Chevrolet, Dort, and Monroe. Charles Nash (president of Buick Read more…
I wanted to visit Atlantic Canada in October 2020 when the weather was nice, but it was closed off for pleasure trips sue to the pandemic. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia finally reopened in February 2022, so I jumped at the chance to visit even though it was cold and Read more…
Sydney is the largest city on Cape Breton Island in the north of Nova Scotia. Its industry began from coal mining in the eighteenth century by the French, who also built the Louisbourg Fortress. The steel industry developed two centuries later and was the city’s bastion of economic activity until Read more…
The native Mi’kmaq people used the isthmus as a transit point between the Atlantic Ocean and Bras d’Or Lake (they obviously didn’t call it that thousands of years ago) as it was only a kilometre long. Their lightweight canoes could easily be carried on their shoulders and brought from the Read more…
The University of Moncton serves the francophone Acadian community in New Brunswick. It was the first and still is the largest francophone university in Atlantic Canada. As such, it is the birthplace of the reawakening of Acadian nationalism in the 1960s and is the world’s premier repository of Acadian records. Read more…
When I planned my trip to Atlantic Canada, I didn’t think I was going to end up in Nova Scotia, I only planned as far as New Brunswick because Nova Scotia wasn’t fully open for discretionary travel yet. A couple of days before my departure date, Nova Scotia finally opened Read more…
Lunenburg is one of the oldest cities in Canada and was home to the schooner Bluenose, featured on some Canadian coinage. It is also one of only two UNESCO communities on the continent, the other one being Quebec City. It is the best conserved British-style colonial settlement on the continent Read more…
Louisbourg is a fishing village surrounded by the fortress’ National Historic Park on both sides of the bay. On one side is a lighthouse built near the site of the country’s first lighthouse in 1730. On the other side is the mighty fortress and its partially rebuilt village. I visited Read more…
Shediac is only 30 minutes east of Moncton. It’s the self-claimed “lobster capital of the world.” It has the warmest waters north of the US on the east coast of North America, but I didn’t go during lobster season so I didn’t get to eat any fresh lobster there. It’s Read more…
Nova Scotia’s capital and the largest city in Atlantic Canada has been a military city since the capitulation of the French in Quebec. It suffered what was the world’s largest explosion during the First World War and was a vital transit point for ships supplying Europe during the 1940s. It Read more…