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…
May 26, 2026
1800s PEI Saint John Long Read
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The First Undersea Cable in North America Went from N.B. to PEI
The completion of the transatlantic cable from Ireland in 1866 was a massive international event (pictured). But 14 years earlier, the first ever undersea…
April 6, 2026
1800s PEI 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…
February 3, 2026
1800s North Shore PEI Long Read
The Ghost of Binstead Manor
A sketch of Binstead House, just outside of Charlottetown, PEI. In 1856, wealthy Englishwoman Georgina Pennée moved into the house and found an unexpected…
October 23, 2024
1800s PEI Strange Tales Women Long Read
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 Nova Scotia Rum Runners Women Long Read
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 Long Read
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 Nova Scotia Rum Runners Long Read Popular
Liberty On The Rocks (Part One): Shootout at Bouctouche
Hugh Corkum was the wireless operator of The Liberty, the fastest rum running ship operating in the Maritimes during Prohibition when booze was banned.…
March 28, 2024
1900s North Shore Rum Runners Long Read Popular
The Other “Mad Trapper”: Detective William Carr’s Battle Against Rogue Poachers
Fur trapping was big business in NB, as this 1925 photo of young Ronald W. Smith admiring the trapped foxes shows. The profitability of…
January 17, 2024
1900s Rum Runners Long Read
The Dr. Leslie E. Keeley Gold Cure Institute For Drunkards
In the 1890s Frederictonians pooled money together to help fund a new health institute. It was based on an extraordinarily bizarre new health remedy:…
December 1, 2023
1800s Fredericton Rum Runners 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
When PEI Banned Cars
An ad for McLaughlin Automobiles, an Ontario company that was once a dominant car maker in Nort America. Within days of McLaughlin opening a…
March 10, 2023
1900s PEI Strange Tales Long Read
On Unceded Land: We Are All Treaty People
Detail of a 1755 map of Nova Scotia. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library On May 12th, 1604, 37-year-old French explorer Samuel de Champlain…
September 30, 2022
1600s and Before Bay of Fundy Forgotten Ruins Nova Scotia PEI Saint John Long Read
The Spectre Of Rexton
A carload of four young people — two guys and two girls — were driving home from a dance on a dark and stormy…
May 20, 2022
1900s Moncton Rum Runners Strange Tales Long Read Popular
Joe Walnut & Detective Carr’s First Encounter
Joe Walnut, then just a small fish, began to set in motion the plan that made him the leader of The Maritimes and New…
May 13, 2022
1900s North Shore Rum Runners Long Read
I’m Alone: The Maritimes’ Most Famous Rum Running Schooner
In September of 1928, a massively overweight New York gangster named Jamie Clark came to Lunenburg to buy a schooner to smuggle illegal booze.…
February 25, 2022
1900s Nova Scotia Rum Runners Long Read
Drug Use During Prohibition
This photo is of a New Brunswick pharmacy in the 1920s. The caption for it simply read “George Dalzell The Druggist.” I in no…
November 17, 2021
1900s Rum Runners Long Read
The End Of Prohibition And The Rise Of N.B. Liquor
Details on this photo are few, but this is thought to be a photo of two officers of the Saint John Police Force defiantly…
August 8, 2021
1900s Fredericton Rum Runners Saint John Long Read
Rum Running In The Crazy 1920s
Not modern hipsters, but rum runners from a century ago. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick P6-1232 Maritime farmers and fishermen who had spent their…
February 26, 2021
1900s Bay of Fundy Rum Runners Long Read
Drinking In The Maritimes
Artist William Hogarth made a career out of critiquing drinking in his paintings and etchings in the 1700s. (William Hogarth, Beer Street, 1750–51) It…
February 24, 2021
1600s and Before 1700s 1800s 1900s Moncton Nova Scotia PEI Rum Runners Women Long Read Popular
Joe Walnut And The Madawaska Mob: The Maritimes’ Rum Kingpin
The Maritimes' most feared gangster, the prohibition era rum running kingpin who went by the alias "Joe Walnut." (Archives des Religieuses Hospitalieres de Saint-Basile,…
February 10, 2021
1900s North Shore Rum Runners Long Read Popular