Day 25 of 30 on our 2017 Canadian Maritime Caravan with Yankee RV Tour

On Thursday June 29, 2017, we departed King Neptune Campground on St Margaret’s Road for our biggest move yet, 21 miles! Our tail-ender, George, ensured the blind curve was clear as we pulled out. He and his wife, Carole, are the ones that help the wagon master in coraling us and ensuring we all are accounted for at events and activities. George is also the mechanic for any of the caravneers mechanical issues ... we will miss them when the caravan ends. They also are the "token" Canadians on our trip, their home is in Ontario!

Just up the road from Peggy’s Cove is Glen Margaret, where local artist and storyteller, Ivan Fraser, opened his childhood family home as a museum and gallery.  Thousands of curious visitors to Peggy’s Cove ask, “Who was Peggy?” The legend, and the story of Peggy, have been brought to life by him. Because of his passion for the mysterious Peggy, Ivan is dedicated to telling the facts and stories behind the name ‘Peggy of the Cove.’ When a Schooner hit Halibut Rock off Lighthouse Point, Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia in the mid-1800’s, no-one knew the impact that such a disaster and the miraculous rescue of the sole survivor would have on the residents of the small fishing village of Peggy’s Cove.

At the museum, you can experience Ivan’s excitement while he weaves family history into Peggy’s magical charm and untold story. See the photograph that inspired him to write about Peggy along with many other beautiful pieces of photography and artwork, all from this talented local artist. Take a step back in time in the ‘Peggy Room’ to see how she would have lived, learn how to blow a Peggy Whistle – not as simple as it sounds, and discover the many other treasures this wonderful museum-gallery has to share. You can also enjoy the sunshine and take advantage of the unique fun photo opportunities that Ivan has created. Climbing into the giant lobster trap, stepping aboard the dory, lifting the humongous anchor, or wearing a joyful smile while touching Peggy’s Tri-color Christmas Tree – you certainly won’t find these anywhere elsewhere.

Along the road that the locals call Peggy’s Cove Road, there are lots of coves. Sometimes there are boats in them and sometimes there are not. You can catch glimpses of the mansions on some of the islands and side roads.

Along this same stretch of road, you can see the Tidewater Hydro Power Plant. The tremendous increases in demand for power during the early 1900’s for the Halifax Metropolitan area could not be met by the antiquated thermal units which in use at that time.  Rates and prices being paid for power by the city became very high, underlining the need for a cheaper source of electricity. Studies recommended to the province of Nova Scotia the development of two sites at St Margaret’s Bay.  It was determined that three potential power sites existed in the area, and that the construction of two of these should be started at once. One of those sites was the Tidewater plant on the shores of St. Margaret’s Bay, which is still in operation today.

We were on a road for less than one half a mile after we exited St Margaret’s Bay Road. But in that short span we passed a gas station, grocery store, a pharmacy and a Tim Hortons! A great place to meet all your needs! We turned onto Hammonds Plain Road, also known as Highway 213.

We passed under a brightly painted railroad bridge and learned that it was once a rusting railway bridge over Hammonds Plains Road offering a blighted entrance to Upper Tantalon for decades. 

Today, the bridge is part of Nova Scotia's rails-to-trails hiking system. The seascapes set the mood for your Peggy’s Cove visit. The whimsical paintings capture the rustic charm of Nova Scotia that adorn the bridge. There is a mural welcoming people heading inbound on Hammonds Plain Road. And the one you see as you departs, reminds you of the scenic moments you enjoyed in Peggy’s Cove.

In about 30 minutes, we arrived at Woodhaven RV Park. We had ample time to get settled and grab a quick lunch, before we headed out on our bus tour of Halifax and our back stage tour of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo.

We headed downtown and picked up our kilted guide, Barton. He took us through part of historic downtown past the Government buildings and many statues and outdoor art pieces including many murals on the sides of brick buildings. It is a very vibrant city!

We passed through Point Pleasant Park. It is situated at the extreme southern end of the city of Halifax and covers 186 acres of land overlooking Halifax Harbor and the North West Arm. There are numerous fortifications within the park. Prince of Wales (Martello) Tower was built in 1796 as was the Cambridge Battery. Fort Ogilvie was built in 1862 and served as a harbor defense and aircraft and searchlight battery during WWI and WWII. Point Pleasant Battery was designed to protect the North West arm and harbor entrance.

For over 250 years the Port of Halifax has been the cornerstone of economic activity for the city, the region and the province. The Port’s strategic location made Halifax an ideal gateway into North America for settlers, shippers and a perfect vantage point for military operations. Colonel Edward Cornwallis arrived from England in 1749 to found Halifax. Over 2,500 settlers followed him. Three years later, North America’s first salt water ferry service was started here. Less than 10 years after his arrival, Halifax opens North America’s first naval dockyard.

In the early 1800’s Halifax becomes a ‘free port’ and allows foreign ships to move cargo in and out. Samuel Cunard, founder of Cunard Line, starts a steamboat ferry service between Halifax and Dartmouth. North America’s first yacht club, The Royal Halifax Yacht Club, called the Port of Halifax home too. By the mid-1800’s the Cunard Line’s Britannia completes the firm’s first transatlantic voyage to provide mail service between Britain and North America. Halifax added a Deep Water Terminus, a dock complex that can house 12 steamers simultaneously and they open the largest drydock facility.

In 1912, the Port of Halifax deploys rescue missions after the sinking of the Titanic. 190 bodies are brought back to Halifax with many are buried here. The biggest disaster at the Port of Halifax came in 1917, when a French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, and a Belgian relief ship, the Imo, collide in Halifax Harbor causing the world’s largest man-made explosion before the nuclear age. The blast kills 2,000 people, injures 9,000 others and destroys 325 acres of land. In 1928, Pier 21 opens as a gateway to Canada for over 1 million immigrants. The Halifax International Container Terminal officially opened in 1969 and becomes the first common-user container terminal in Canada. In 1984, the Port of Halifax hosts the World’s Tall Ships for the first time, they become regular visitors to the port. By 1990, the cruise ship terminal is expanded to accommodate two vessels simultaneously.

In 2006, a 10′ bronze statue of Halifax native and the ‘Steam Lion’, Sir Samuel Cunard was erected at the Port of Halifax. This statue brought to fruition the long held dream for the construction of a suitable memorial to Samuel Cunard. This Halifax native revolutionized transportation and communication between the Old and New Worlds with the introduction of his steamships to the North Atlantic beginning with the Cunard Line flag ship Britannia, in 1840. The statue was designed by Halifax sculptor Peter Bustin and cast by Artcast Foundry in Georgetown, Ontario.

Photo Credit - Hamilton Spectator

The Port of Halifax had a special visitor, for their 150^th, while we were there. The USS Dwight D Eisenhower sailed into Halifax as part of Canada 150 celebrations on Wednesday, June 28^th. It is the first time a US Aircraft Carrier has visited Halifax since 1998.

While we waited in traffic, due to the massive amount of construction in downtown Halifax, Barton told us about the “art” we could see.  Some might think that it is a result of some rowdy behavior on Halifax’s waterfront boardwalk, but it’s not. Artists Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg have installed three disorderly, personified streetlamps on South Battery Pier, near Bishop’s Landing. The installations, "Fountain" and the diptych "Got Drunk, Fell Down," are part of a series entitled The Way Things Are. They are nakedly honest portraits of unseemly behaviors that are often playing out on our own streets after dark, but it is easier to stomach a streetlamp, rather than a person, urinating off the pier. In the diptych, one of the poles looks with the lamppost-equivalent of concern, at another post passed out limply at tripping level across the boardwalk. With some public art pieces, it is impossible to keep people from climbing on them, Barton informed us. The artists are comfortable with people engaging with the sculptures; in fact, they prefer it.

We also saw a pile of Red Bicycles as we passed shops and restaurants along the wharf. Turns out the pile of red bicycles is a sign for The Bicycle Thief. It is a relaxed, come-as-you-are feel, in an atmosphere that blends Old School style with New School attitude, as evident from their unique sign. It is an outdoor patio gathering bar and restaurant featuring Italian Food.

In April of 1955, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge opened and the communities of Halifax and Dartmouth were united for the first time. This efficient transportation link provided 24 - 7 access across the Halifax harbor. 

The Macdonald Bridge was named after former Nova Scotia Premier Mr. Angus Lewis Macdonald. He served as the Liberal premier of Nova Scotia from 1933 to 1940 when he became the federal minister of defense for naval services. He oversaw the creation of an effective Canadian Navy and Allied convoy service during World War II. After the war, he returned to Nova Scotia to become premier again and he died in office in 1954. The Macdonald Bridge was converted from a two lane to a three lane structure with a pedestrian walkway and bicycle lane in 1999. In 2005, the Halifax Harbor Bridges celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Macdonald Bridge. There are approximately 48,000 crossings on the Macdonald Bridge on an average workday. The Macdonald Bridge has a reversible center lane. In the morning there are two lanes to Halifax. At noon it switches and there are two lanes to Dartmouth and one to Halifax. The bridge was recently raised to accommodate the access of taller ships into the harbor.

The opening of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge on July 10, 1970 was another historic event for Halifax Dartmouth Bridge Commission. The opening of the MacKay Bridge drew international interest due to its design and the engineering techniques that were applied to its construction for the first time in North America. The MacKay Bridge was named after the Commission’s former Chairman from 1951 to 1971. Mr. MacKay was instrumental in the construction of both the Macdonald and MacKay Bridges, as they were both opened during his time as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners. Also, at the time, Mr. MacKay was the Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Tel & Tel. It seemed fitting that the bridge be named after this prominent community member.

We drove by a small wooden church, nestled on the edge of the Bedford Basin. I learned it is a replica that represents the survival of a once-thriving African Nova Scotian community. The Seaview African United Baptist Church was once the heart of Africville, but was abruptly demolished in the 1960s by the city of Halifax to make way for new development. Now, the pale yellow, red roofed replica church in Halifax's north end serves as an exhibition of the community's trials and tribulations over the past 150 years. While a little off the typical tourist track in Halifax, the Africville Heritage Trust Museum tells the largely untold story of the oppressed village. I had to learn more, the story begged to be shared!

The first official record of Africville is from 1761, when the land was granted to several white families, including the families of men who imported and sold enslaved African men and women. In 1836, Campbell Road connected central Halifax to the Africville area. It is likely that several Black families lived in the area, earning it the nickname “African Village.” They were a mix of freed slaves, Maroons and Black refugees from the War of 1812. Many of these refugees were once enslaved in the Chesapeake area of the United States. In 1848, William Arnold and William Brown, both Black settlers, bought land in Africville. Other families followed and in 1849 Seaview African United Baptist Church was opened to serve the village’s 80 residents. The church was called “the beating heart of Africville” and was the center of the village to both church-goers and non church-goers. It held the main civic events, including weddings, funerals and baptisms. The church’s baptisms and Easter Sunrise Services were well-known.

African-Nova Scotians, as well as white Nova Scotians, would line the banks of the Bedford Basin to watch the singing procession leave the church to baptize adults in the basin’s waters. After much petitioning by Africvillians, a school opened in 1883. A local resident had taught many of the children in Africville before the City school opened. Africville residents ran fishing businesses from the Bedford Basin, selling their catch locally and in Halifax. Other residents ran farms, and several opened small stores toward the end of the 19th century. It was a haven from the anti-Black racism they faced in Halifax, where Black women were generally only able to find work as domestic servants and where men were limited to a few jobs such as sleeping car porters on trains. Children swam in Tibby’s Pond and played baseball in Kildare’s Field. In the winter, everyone played hockey when the pond froze. The City of Halifax collected taxes in Africville, but did not provide services such as paved roads, running water or sewers. In 1854, a railway extension was cut through the village. Several homes were expropriated and destroyed. Some homeowners protested that they had not been paid for their land and that the speeding trains posed a danger and polluted the village. More land was expropriated for the railway in 1912 and in the 1940s. In the first half of the 20th century, such municipal services as public transportation, garbage collection, recreational facilities and adequate police protection were non-existent.

The City of Halifax continued to place undesirable services in Africville in the second half of the 19th century, including: a fertilizer plant, slaughterhouses, Rockhead Prison, the “night-soil disposal pits” aka human waste and the Infectious Diseases Hospital. In 1915, Halifax City Council declared that Africville “will always be an industrial district.” The 1917 Halifax Explosion shelved plans to turn Africville into an industrial zone. The disaster levelled much of the north end and damaged Africville. A global relief effort brought in millions of dollars in donations to rebuild the city, but none of the money went to rebuilding Africville. Halifax did not survey Africville for damage, but oral history records that several homes were badly damaged and lost their roofs. About four Africvillians died, although it’s thought that they were in the north end when the explosion hit. Throughout the 1930s, residents petitioned the city to provide running water, sewage disposal, paved roads, garbage removal, electricity, street lights, police services and a cemetery, but were largely denied. In the 1950s, Halifax built an open-pit dump in Africville. The city considered several locations, but council found it was unacceptable to residents in places such as Fairview. One alderman said the dump was “a health menace” and should not be placed in Fairview. Council voted to put the dump near the western edge of Africville. By the 1960s, many white Halifax residents referred to Africville as a slum built around the dump by scavengers. Seeing Africville as a “slum” formed an important part of the public acceptance of Africville’s destruction. The school was closed in 1953 as Nova Scotia de-segregated its education system. In practice, this meant closing many Black schools and bussing pupils to the nearest white schools. Africville students went to schools in Halifax.

Africville was a culturally significant place. The Africville Brown Bombers were a popular team in the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes — a business largely run out of Africville — and drew big crowds from the CHL founding in 1895 until it closed in 1930. In the 1960s, boxer Joe Louis visited Africville, as did musician Duke Ellington. Louis was in Halifax to referee a wrestling match and asked where all the Black people lived. He was told Africville, and so he went to see it for himself. Ellington’s father-in-law was from Africville and he stayed to visit family. The singer Portia White was from Africville, as was George Dixon, the first Black world champion of boxing.

Despite difficult living conditions and Africville’s growing reputation as a “slum” in the 20th century, residents generally maintained a deep pride in their community. It was seen as a rural idyll apart from Halifax. Many cited the people and the seaside location, with one well-travelled resident calling it “one of the most beautiful spots I’ve been in.” Plans to turn Africville into industrial land were revived and approved by Halifax City Council in 1947, when the area was rezoned for that purpose. Reports prepared for council in 1956 and 1957 recommend re-housing residents to make way for industrial projects. In 1962, the city approved plans for an expressway to downtown Halifax that would run over Africville, but it was never built. At a public meeting in Africville in 1962, 100 Africvillians voted strongly against relocation, preferring to improve the existing community. In an interview at that time with the CBC, homeowner Joe Skinner explained that Africville was a place where Black people were free and that he did not want to move into Halifax to end segregation. Halifax council voted to remove the “blighted housing and dilapidated structures in the Africville area.” The city promised a process of “urban renewal” where residents would be relocated to superior housing in Halifax. The first land was expropriated in 1964, and homes were bulldozed lot by lot over the next five years.

Some residents were moved to derelict housing or rented public housing. When a city-organized moving company cancelled, Halifax brought in dump trucks to move residents and their possessions. The stigma of being from Africville was compounded when families arrived at their new homes on the back of dump trucks. Locals likened Africville to a warzone, with houses disappearing daily. Several homeowners found that their homes had been bulldozed without their knowledge or permission. Others had only a few hours’ notice before the bulldozers came. One man returned from a hospital stay to find that his house had been destroyed. Many left with what they could carry. The church was destroyed in the middle of the night in the spring of 1967. Many residents saw this as the death knell for the community. In 1969, the final property was expropriated and demolished, and the last of Africville’s 400 residents left. One resident, Eddie Carvery, returned to the site of Africville in 1970 and pitched a tent in protest. He remains in Africville.The site was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. The citation called it “a site of pilgrimage for people honoring the struggle against racism.” On 24 February 2010, Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Peter Kelly apologized for the destruction of Africville and said that the city would build a replica church. The church museum opened in 2012, and the area was renamed Africville Park. On 30 January 2014, Canada Post Corporation issued a commemorative stamp depicting a photograph of seven young girls — all community members — against an illustrated background of the village. Former Africvillians and their descendants continue to hold summer reunions in the park, with many camping on the site of their former homes. The church museum began holding Christmas services in 2012. Africville today is a potent symbol in the fight against racism and segregation in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Our next stop was Fairview Lawn Cemetery. This cemetery contains 121 graves that bear witness to the range of cultures and social classes that were on board the Titanic. Victims thought to be Protestant were buried in this nondenominational cemetery. 19 victims of the Titanic are interred in the Catholic Mount Olive Cemetery, including JFP Clarke, the bass player in the band. Michael Navratil, Frederick H Wormald and eight unidentified male victims are buried in the Baron de Hirsch Jewish cemetery.

We took a stroll through the public gardens of Halifax. They were beautiful and well maintained. 

               

We had a private Back Stage Tour of the Tattoo, with our tour guide, Bob. He is an American from NC that came to Halifax over 20 years ago, over the summer and got involved in the Nova Scotia tattoo. He faithfully returned every summer to volunteer to put this extravagant show on! During our tour we learned that the Tattoo is honoring 3 events during this tattoo; Vimy Ridge, the Halifax Explosion and Canada’s 150^th.

Let’s talk about Vimy Ridge first, many historians and writers consider the Canadian victory at Vimy a defining moment for Canada, when the country emerged from under the shadow of Britain and felt capable of greatness. Canadian troops also earned a reputation as formidable, effective troops because of the stunning success. But it was a victory at a terrible cost, with more than 10,000 killed and wounded. The capture of Vimy was more than just an important battlefield victory. For the first time all four Canadian divisions attacked together: men from all regions of Canada were present at the battle. Brigadier-General AE Ross declared after the war, “in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.” Vimy became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion. In 1922, the French government ceded to Canada in perpetuity Vimy Ridge, and the land surrounding it. The gleaming white marble and haunting sculptures of the Vimy Memorial, unveiled in 1936, stand as a terrible and poignant reminder of the 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France who have no known graves.

I blogged about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, in another blog. If you missed it, you can read it here.

The third highlight of the Tattoo is Canada’s 150 Anniversary. It is the biggest celebration in Canada since the 1967 Expo and many say that this event will overwhelm the Expo. We have truly been blessed to explore the Canadian Maritimes during this banner year!

A few of us enjoyed a late dinner at Lefty’s Restaurant. We tried to go to Vernon’s Diner, but the wait was 50 minutes … and we were already starved! Lefty's offered us a private room with great food, large portions and country prices. We enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere, as well as speedy, efficient service by our personable, professional waiter, Mike. The food was excellent and the prices were fair.