The Story Behind ‘Farewell to Nova Scotia’
‘Farewell to Nova Scotia’ is a Maritimes anthem that has been performed by everyone from Stan Rogers to Stompin' Tom Connors; from Anne Murray…
June 22, 2026
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Women
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The Hero in Sailor’s Garb
Nova Scotians attend the makeshift funeral for victims of the SS Atlantic catastrophe. Among the dead buried in this mass grave was a sailor…
June 14, 2026
1800s Nova Scotia Women
Angeline’s Wedding Dress Disaster
For countless ships headed to Halifax’s harbour, the first glimpse of the Sambro Island Lighthouse (pictured) marked the relief of a journey’s end. But…
April 29, 2026
1800s Nova Scotia Women
A Pompous Parisian’s Misadventures In The Maritimes
A 300-year-old travel diary reveals what life really looked like in our region's first capital. Map of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, dating…
April 13, 2026
1600s and Before Bay of Fundy Nova Scotia
Bogged Down In Cape Breton: Beryl Markham’s “Beastly Flight”
Hear a much longer (and much better) version of this story on the Backyard History Podcast, starring Stephanie Tait voicing Beryl Markham and producer…
February 24, 2026
1900s Nova Scotia Women
The Forgotten Christmas Traditions of Old New Brunswick
Many of our beloved holiday traditions are surprisingly young. For example the old Loyalists would have been baffled at what a tree was doing…
December 9, 2025
1700s Christmas
Clara Dennis Comes Home to Confront Her Halifax Explosion Legacy
Here we see Clara Dennis during her solo Nova Scotia roadtrip that formed the backbone of her internatsional bestselling book "Down In Nova Scotia."…
December 2, 2025
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Women
A Lifesaving Mission at the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Known shipwrecks of Sable Island, as of the late 1800s (Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/240 – 1887) Dorothea Dix somehow slept through the…
August 5, 2025
1800s Nova Scotia Women
The Wreck of the Martha
Loyalists had to endure unimaginable hardships to make it to the safety of New Brunswick, and not all made it. One ship of refugees…
June 10, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John War
Comedy on the Rocks: A Maritime Tale of Ice and Improv
A map of Pictou Island in 1879, from the book "Illustrated Historical Atlas Of Pictou County Nova Scotia." Pictou Island, Nova Scotia, is so…
May 27, 2025
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Strange Tales
The First Murder in New Brunswick
New Brunswick’s first-ever murder took place in 1784, only two months after the province was created. The murder weapon was an ordinary table fork.…
May 13, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John Strange Tales Women
ANNOUNCEMENT: Book 3 ‘Rebellious Women In The Maritimes’ Is Out!
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new book, Backyard History: Rebellious Women in the Maritimes! This one’s for all of you who…
November 13, 2024
1600s and Before 1700s 1800s 1900s Women
The Man Who Was Hanged On The Gallows He Built
A remarkable tale of dastardly murder, daring escape, and disastrously bad luck in the earliest days of New Brunswick is so (in)famous that it…
October 15, 2024
1700s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales
Nova Scotia’s Unsinkable “Ghost Ship,” The Governor Parr
The word “ghost ship” might conjure spectral images of the Victorian era, but a Nova Scotian ghost ship named the Governor Parr was distinctly…
October 9, 2024
1900s Forgotten Ruins Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s Queen of the Bootleggers: Amy Mason
During Prohibition when booze was banned, reluctant liquor control officer Clifford Rose found himself in the middle of a dispute between a corrupt politician…
August 12, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Rum Runners Women
“Canada’s Flying Schoolmarm” Wins at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Aileen Meagher, a runner from Halifax, represented Canada in the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler himself watched her beat the German team for…
July 24, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Women
Unfinished Dreams: Rise and Fall of the Chignecto Ship Railway
An ambitious project to build an oversized railway to carry ships along the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border from the Northumberland Strait to the Bay…
May 15, 2024
1800s Bay of Fundy Greatest Hits Nova Scotia
Liberty On The Rocks (Part Three) Captured in Charlottetown
Hear longer and more in-depth versions of the three stories in the 'Liberty On The Rocks' Trilogy trilogy come to life on the Backyard…
April 10, 2024
1900s Nova Scotia PEI Rum Runners
Liberty On The Rocks (Part Two) Initiation Of A Rum Runner
LISTEN to the full version of this story on the Backyard History Podcast! Read Part One: Liberty On The Rocks: Shootout At Bouctouche Listen…
April 3, 2024
1900s Greatest Hits Nova Scotia Rum Runners
A Halifax Christmas Murder Mystery
On Christmas night in 1824, a drunk and lonely elderly man stumbled through Halifax’s dark, cold and icy streets. Edward Shea had come into…
December 13, 2023
1800s Christmas Nova Scotia
What is a “Bluenoser,” anyway?
In 1899, a reader of the New Brunswick Magazine wrote in inquiring why Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers were nicknamed “Bluenosers.” Evidently insulted, the…
November 23, 2023
1600s and Before Forgotten Ruins Nova Scotia
The Second Halifax Explosion
On 18 July 1945, an ammunition barge blew up at the Naval Magazine jetty on Bedford Basin. Fire spread quickly to piles of ammunition.…
November 19, 2023
1900s Greatest Hits Long Reads Nova Scotia War
Trotsky’s Maritimes Revolutionary Roadblock
Photographer John Muir McKinley, of Woodstock NB photographed German Prisoners of War inside of the Amherst Internment Camp in 1917. One prisoner who he…
October 17, 2023
1900s Nova Scotia War
American Invaders Stole PEI’s Great Seal
Map of Prince Edward Island in 1775. Titled: "A plan of the island of St. John with the divisions of the counties parishes &…
October 1, 2023
1700s Long Reads PEI War