
New Brunswick’s Accidental First Provincial Park
A monument marking the 50th anniversary of the provincial park system being unveiled at Glenwood in 1985. At this event, Arnold Mann, who built…

A monument marking the 50th anniversary of the provincial park system being unveiled at Glenwood in 1985. At this event, Arnold Mann, who built…

There is more than lobster to be found in the waters beyond Dipper Harbour, where this curious 1960 tourism promo was shot. A century…

‘Farewell to Nova Scotia’ is a Maritimes anthem that has been performed by everyone from Stan Rogers to Stompin' Tom Connors; from Anne Murray…

Nova Scotians attend the makeshift funeral for victims of the SS Atlantic catastrophe. Among the dead buried in this mass grave was a sailor…

These articles on the website are (mostly) the articles from the Backyard History newspaper column, which have a strict 1,000 words/week limit. In the…

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

For countless ships headed to Halifax’s harbour, the first glimpse of the Sambro Island Lighthouse (pictured) marked the relief of a journey’s end. But…

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…

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…

Hear a much longer (and much better) version of this story on the Backyard History Podcast, starring Stephanie Tait voicing Beryl Markham and producer…

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

Here we see Clara Dennis during her solo Nova Scotia roadtrip that formed the backbone of her internatsional bestselling book "Down In Nova Scotia."…

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…

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…

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.…

I spent so long searching old Australian newspapers from the 1850s for what I understood was going to be a photo of New Brunswicker…

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

As he neared the end of his long and eventful life, legendary Wolastoqiyik Sachem (chief) Gabriel Acquin sat down with UNB professor Dr. Edward…

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

Known shipwrecks of Sable Island, as of the late 1800s (Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/240 – 1887) Dorothea Dix somehow slept through the…

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…

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

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

Loyalists had to endure unimaginable hardships to make it to the safety of New Brunswick, and not all made it. One ship of refugees…