The Ghost Ship Heather Bell
Little woods boats like the ones seen here in Fredericton in 1875 (this photo is taken from the south side looking towards the Nashwaak)…
June 9, 2026
1800s Saint John
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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
The Ghost of Ryan’s Castle
A ridiculously wealthy and extremely eccentric dentist built a mansion in Hampton, New Brunswick. The ghost said to be guarding a hidden treasure on…
March 31, 2026
1900s Forgotten Ruins Saint John Strange Tales
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…
March 10, 2026
1800s Moncton Saint John
Georgina Whetsel and the Backlash to Blackface
In the winter of 1889, Saint John threw itself a party and accidentally exposed some deeply uncomfortable truths about race, respectability and who was…
February 9, 2026
1800s Saint John Women
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
Jesse Skuse’s Long Road Home
On these foggy Saint John streets in 1894, an eight-year-old girl was found crying, all alone. She had been abandoned by her adoptive parents.…
November 12, 2025
1800s Saint John Women
Blue Water: The Atlantic Canadian Film That Hollywood Sank
Most “lost films” from the early days of cinema vanished by accident as reels were destroyed, misplaced, or left to decay. But Blue Water’s…
October 14, 2025
1900s Bay of Fundy Saint John
The 240 Million Record-Selling N.B.er You’ve Never Heard Of
Harry H. McClaskey AKA Henry Burr (plus a dozen other pseudonyms) came from St. Stephen, New Brunswick and went on to become one of…
July 22, 2025
1900s Saint John
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
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
Allen Ginsberg’s Controversial Easter Reading of Howl in a Church
On Easter weekend, 1967, The Turtles’ Happy Together knocked The Beatles’ Penny Lane from the number one spot on the music charts — and…
April 15, 2025
1900s Saint John Strange Tales
Pirates, Gold & a Ghost in a Rain Cap: The Rechab’s Treasure Hunt
Pilot ships had the tough and important job of guiding ships through treacherous waters safely into port. That job description for the beloved pilot…
March 25, 2025
1800s Bay of Fundy Saint John Strange Tales
Suffragette in the Storm: Sylvia Pankhurst stuck in Saint John
Saint Johners trudged through a snowstorm that brought 40-mile-an-hour gale winds and a two-foot snowfall to see a woman described as “inaugurating a reign…
March 4, 2025
1900s Saint John Women
Nellie McGowan’s Quarantine Journal from Partridge Island
For exactly one year to the day, beginning on New Year’s Eve 1901, Nellie McGowan kept a diary. It appears that she began her…
January 1, 2025
1900s Long Reads Saint John Women
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
The Hate Preacher
Nicknamed "The Travelling Peace Breaker," New Brunswicker L. J. King left the province after Saint Johners tried to throw him off a cliff, but…
October 1, 2024
1800s Long Reads Saint John
The Candy Killer: The Serial Killer Who Stalked Saint John
Terror gripped the gritty streets of Saint John in 1889. The city had its very own serial killer — but this murderer didn’t use…
August 27, 2024
1800s Greatest Hits Long Reads Saint John
Trouble With Traffic Lights
New Brunswick experienced some growing pains as more people began driving cars, including some remarkable struggles adapting to one particular new technology: the traffic…
August 9, 2024
1900s Moncton Saint John
Historic Canada Day Broadcast Unites A Nation
In 1927, for the first time, a full-on nationwide simultaneous Canada Day celebration was held. Fredericton’s Daily Mail newspaper summed up the jubilant mood…
June 27, 2024
1900s Fredericton Saint John
Fires, Fights & Philanthropy: The Free Library Saga
All I wanted to know was why there was a “Free” in the name “Saint John Free Public Library.” It turned out that that…
May 29, 2024
1800s Saint John
The Fatal Race
New Brunswick’s rowing champions “The Paris Crew,” whom we met in last week’s article, were hardly one-hit wonders. One remarkable event in their legendary…
May 7, 2024
1800s Saint John
The “Strange” Men In The Hot Pink Hats
Only a week after Confederation, four working-class Saint John men showed up among the Paris elites to represent the new country of Canada in…
May 3, 2024
1800s Greatest Hits Saint John
Teenage Soldiers of the Soil Went From Classrooms to Farms
Getting this uniform was a major selling point for the teenage boys -some as young as only 13 years old- who answered the call…
February 28, 2024
1900s Saint John War