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The Mystery of the Ship that Flipped

Jack Dyre was jolted awake by an unknown voice he described as “harsh and eerie” hissing at him: “Dyre, leave this ship!” Considering he…

1800s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales

The Murder of Timothy McCarthy

For decades, Acadian singers would open a long, mournful ballad with those words in the song called “Le Meurtre de Timothy McCarthy,” which means…

1800s Moncton Women Long Read

A Brief History of Dulse

If reports of criminal activity are a good way to judge a thing’s popularity, by the turn of the century dulse was exceptionally popular.

Bay of Fundy

The Sunken Treasure Ship In The Bay of Fundy

There is more than lobster to be found in the waters beyond Dipper Harbour, where this curious 1960 tourism promo was shot. A century…

1800s Bay of Fundy War Long Read

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…

1600s and Before Bay of Fundy Nova Scotia Long Read

The Little Railway That Could

A photograph of the first train to arrive in St. Stephen, in 1867. Ten years earlier, the first train in New Brunswick had its…

1800s Moncton Saint John Long Read

The Dorchester Penny Train Crash

One hundred and twenty nine years ago, New Brunswick suffered what was initially called a “terrible catastrophe” and its worst ever train wreck, leaving…

1800s Moncton Long Read Popular

The Curse of the Anna Currier

A ship drifted ashore near St. Martins in January 1884, her crew missing and her cargo untouched. The mystery of what happened aboard the…

1800s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales Long Read

How Was Magnetic Hill Discovered?

Magnetic Hill has been a New Brunswick icon since the 1930s and grew into a full attraction with a gift shop, zoo, water park,…

1900s Moncton Long Read Popular

The Cow, The Well & The Lost Treasure of Jolicure

A bizarre treasure hunt that was later nicknamed "New Brunswick's own Oak Island" kicked off when a cow fell down a mysterious structure on…

1800s Forgotten Ruins Moncton Long Read

Return of the Heroine’s Granddaughter

Janet Webster gave her life in the French Resistance. This summer, her granddaughter, Sophie Roche (right) returned to New Brunswick to rediscover the family’s…

1900s Moncton Long Read

The First Ever Murder in Moncton

Headlines from 1892 announcing that, after 220 years, Moncton had its first ever murder. It started with a North Shore break-in. Then another. Then…

1800s Moncton Long Read

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…

1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John War Long Read

The Stolen Rare Ducks of Old Simeon Cheney

The Eider duck’s warm, lightweight down made it a target for hunters across the Maritimes. But thanks to an old fisherman, a nest of…

1800s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales Long Read

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.…

1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John Strange Tales Women Long Read

Two Teachers’ Summer Vacation on the Brink of War

As Europe teetered on the brink of war in the Summer of 1939, two Moncton schoolteachers went on a carefree two-month-long vacation across that…

1900s Moncton War Women Long Read

Helen Creighton and the Lost Songs of The Maritimes

Celebrated folklorist Helen Creighton (seated far left, with her high-tech portable recorder) spent her life documenting Nova Scotian songs. In the early 1950s, she…

1900s Bay of Fundy Forgotten Ruins Women Long Read Popular

Janet Webster’s Secret War

This is an abbreviated part of the centrepiece story of my new book, Rebellious Women In The Maritimes. Order your copy of the book…

1900s Moncton War Women Long Read

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…

1700s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales Long Read

The Fish That Saved A Town

Proud handwriting on the back of this 1950s photo of two women packing sardines in the Connors Brothers factory in Blacks Harbour reads: “Today,…

1900s Bay of Fundy Long Read
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