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Marilyn Monroe’s Secret Trip to Miramichi

Find a longer version of this story – and many others – in the fourth Backyard History book ‘Mysterious Stories From Atlantic Canada’s Past,’…

1900s North Shore Women Long Read

The Strange Journey of Louisa Journeaux

When 22-year-old Louisa Journeaux stepped into a rowboat one quiet Sunday evening, she couldn’t have imagined that the whole world would hear about it.…

1800s Newfoundland Long Read

The Night The Crocodiles Attacked

A Fredericton Commando’s Second World War Victory Had The Japanese On The Run. Then Came The Crocodiles. Frederictonian Bruce Wright’s (left) idle daydreaming during…

1900s Fredericton Strange Tales War Long Read

Kethro The Barber’s Curious Singing Career

One of the oldest photos of Fredericton’s Christ Church Cathedral, taken in 1857. Ten years after this photo was taken, the letters of British…

1800s Fredericton Strange Tales Long Read

The Woodman’s Ghost

A crew of woodsmen pause for a photo deep in the forest, axes in hand and snow at their feet. What they did out…

1800s North Shore PEI Long Read

New Years A Century Ago

One hundred years ago, Maritimers rang in the New Year with optimism, oddball traditions, and a world on the brink of change (Provincial Archives…

1900s Christmas Fredericton Saint John Long Read

Nearer to Heaven on Sugarloaf

Joseph Lacasse had been told his whole life what he couldn't do. Born with one leg nearly a foot shorter than the other, he'd…

1900s North Shore Long Read

The Hero of Priestman Street

Fredericton’s Bryan Priestman survived two world wars — only to lose his life on Remembrance Day, trying to save an eight-year-old boy. (Provincial Archives…

1900s Fredericton War Long Read Popular

My Classmate Who Never Came Home

Colin Wilmot's photo in our high school yearbook. Back in high school, I sat next to a warm, funny, kind-hearted soul named Colin Wilmot.…

1900s Fredericton War Long Read

The Great Fire of Miramichi

New Brunswick Legends Tapestries – Great Fire of the Miramichi, 1996, Designed by Micheal McEwing, Woven by Ivan H Crowell. (Provincial Archives of New…

1800s North Shore Long Read

The Great Fredericton Fire

This tapestry depicting the Great Fire of Fredericton today hangs in Fredericton's City Hall, in the council chambers. (Or, at least it did when…

1800s Fredericton Long Read

The Prison Camp Poem of Alfred Elsliger

Alfred Elsliger (Canadian Virtual War Memorial) Alfred W. Elsliger enlisted with his friends, including my Great Uncle Wilfred Smith, in his little hometown of…

1900s North Shore War Long Read

The Great Campbellton Cowbell Controversy

Is this the face that launched a province-wide debate? In the summer of 1886, New Brunswickers found themselves fiercely divided — over cowbells in…

1800s North Shore Strange Tales Long Read

Tim Lynch, Mad King of the Moose

This illustration was published in a tourism brochure Frank Risteen made for the City of Fredericton (for promotional purposes, he bestowed Fredericton with the…

1800s North Shore Strange Tales Long Read

The Search For Lost Boy Albert Smythe

A collection of headlines from newspapers about the serch for missing child Albert Smythe in 1922. Today, a missing child is a huge deal.…

1900s Fredericton Long Read

The Night Fredericton’s Bridge Floated Away

Fredericton experienced a harrowing day of severe flooding that seemed to come out of nowhere with shocking speed in 1936, only to recede just…

1900s Fredericton Long Read
Four Backyard History books against an archival photograph.

Backyard History books

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