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.…
March 24, 2026
1800s Newfoundland Long Read
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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…
December 30, 2025
1900s Christmas Fredericton Saint John Long Read
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 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…
June 10, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John War 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.…
May 13, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John Strange Tales Women Long Read
Terror From The Deep: The Giant Squid That Shocked The World
Tom Picot watched idly as an ominous, large, dark spot passed under the tiny fishing boat he and his father were aboard near Bell…
March 11, 2025
1800s Newfoundland Strange Tales Long Read
The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Bob Bartlett, Polar Explorer
Newfoundlander Bob Bartlett (right) and famous explorer Robert Peary (left) were a dynamic duo of Arctic exploration who faced triumph and controversy in their…
January 7, 2025
1900s Newfoundland Long Read
The News Boys New Years Annual Address
My first ever job was a paperboy. I used to deliver the newspapers that Backyard History is published in. (That’s not relevant to the…
December 27, 2024
1800s Christmas Strange Tales Long Read
Christmas A Century Ago
Some exceptionally stylish women (note the scandelous new short haircuts) in 1924 posing painting toys. One century ago, many of the things we take…
December 18, 2024
1900s Christmas Long Read
Claus-trophobia and Santa’s Other Maritimes Misadventures
It turns out that Santa has had a remarkable number of strange misadventures in the Maritimes over the years. Here are four of them.…
December 10, 2024
1900s Christmas Saint John Strange Tales Long Read
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 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…
October 15, 2024
1700s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales Long Read
Nancy New Year of the North Shore
Nancy New Year is a centuries old tradition which still survives today along New Brunswick's North Shore of a fairy, imagined here by the…
December 28, 2023
1800s Christmas North Shore Long Read Popular
Santa’s First Appearance In The Maritimes
A photo of Charles Sampson that appeared alongside a profile on him in the New Brunswick Reporter in 1874. Notably for the time, this…
December 20, 2023
1800s Christmas Fredericton Long Read
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 Long Read
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 PEI War Long Read
Terry Fox In Atlantic Canada
Statue of Terry Fox in St. John's, Newfoundland, where his Marathon of Hope first began. While Terry Fox’s ‘Marathon of Hope’ had begun with…
September 16, 2023
1900s Moncton Newfoundland Nova Scotia PEI Long Read
Benjamin Franklin’s “Worthless” Nova Scotian Land
Benjamin Franklin is a major figure in the American cultural mythology of the birth of the United States, and his face is found today…
June 4, 2023
1700s Nova Scotia War Long Read
The Hottest Dance Club In Early New Brunswick
This rare photo is from 1872, before The Great Fire but a century after MacPherson’s Coffee House stood here. MacPherson’s had been the hottest…
May 19, 2023
1700s Saint John Long Read
Giant Squid Attacks in Newfoundland
The Vikings called it the Kraken. The Bible called it Leviathan. But today we think these fearsome, mysterious sea monsters were giant squids. By…
April 23, 2023
1800s Newfoundland Strange Tales Long Read Popular
“Valiant Amazon:” Elizabeth Beard’s Fight Against Americans
While this famous woodcut depicts an American woman named Molly Pitcher who fought in the American Revolution, there was also another, completely forgotten woman…
March 3, 2023
1700s Fredericton War Women Long Read
Using This Loophole, Women Voted Centuries Before “Allowed “
WSPU leaders Annie Kenney (left) and Christabel Pankhurst, 1908 (public domain) Canadian women officially got the right to vote in 1919, but there is…
January 26, 2023
1700s 1800s Fredericton Women Long Read
‘T’was The Night Before Christmas’ Maritimes Connection
A 1903 drawing of Santa Claus by Rose O'Neill. Much of how we see Santa is from Clement Clarke Moore's poem 'Twas The Night…
December 24, 2022
1800s Christmas Fredericton Long Read
The Hottest Forgotten Game Of Christmas Past
The cover of 'Snap-Dragons' by Juliana Horatia Ewing, a childrens' Christmas story fictionalizing the extremely popular –some might say hottest– Christmas game of the…
December 16, 2022
1600s and Before 1800s Christmas Fredericton Strange Tales Long Read