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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 Long Reads Moncton Women

The Maritimes’ Greatest Bank Robbery

The victim of The Maritimes most expensive bank robbery was the Prince Edward Island bank in 1881. It was, however, not as straight forward…

1800s PEI Saint John

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

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

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

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 Long Reads North Shore PEI

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 Greatest Hits Moncton

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

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 Greatest Hits Moncton

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 Long Reads North Shore

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

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

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 Long Reads Moncton

Forgotten Pioneers on Canada’s East Coast

Long before the French or English arrived in Canada, vast numbers of Basques fished the waters. They weren't colonists though, but more like seasonal…

1600s and Before

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

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

Malobiannah and The Destroyer: The Heroine of Grand Falls

Grand Falls name in Wəlastəkwey is Chik-un-ik’-a-bik, which means “The Destroyer.” The name refers back to the story of a young woman named Malobiannah,…

1600s and Before Greatest Hits War Women

The Mysterious Lost and Found Diary of the Tobique

A mysterious Englishman sailed to New Brunswick in the 1850s. His name and his fate are unknown. All that remains of him is his…

1800s Greatest Hits Long Reads North Shore Strange Tales
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