Mahone Bay Shoot

Mahone Bay is a town on the northwest shore of Mahone Bay along the South Shore of Nova Scotia in Lunenburg County. A long-standing picturesque tourism destination, the town has recently enjoyed a growing reputation as a haven for entrepreneurs and business startups.[3] The town has the fastest growing population of any municipality in Nova Scotia according to the 2016 census, experiencing 9.9% population growth.[4]

History
The end of glaciation began 13,500 years ago[5] and ended with the region becoming largely ice free 11,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of Palaeo-Indian settlement in the region follows rapidly after deglaciation.[6]

The Town of Mahone Bay is part of the Mi’kma’ki territory of the Mi’kmaq who have inhabited their traditional lands for over 13,500 years. Prior to arrival of the Europeans, Mi’kmaw lived in and around what is now Mahone Bay. Indian Point, just outside the town, was an important summertime settlement where the Mi’kmaq could enjoy the sheltered waters and plentiful food sources. In the winter, they would move inland from the coast using the rivers that flow into Mahone Bay harbour. There are many Mi’kmaq who live in the area today.

British officials placed public notices in Germany, southern France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands stating that those willing to move to their planned settlement in Nova Scotia would receive grants of land, food for a year, and a few farm animals. Between 1750 and 1752 more than 2,200 such “Foreign Protestants” made the long journey from Europe to Halifax.

In 1753, most of the new immigrants were brought from Halifax to Lunenburg, which was to be the centre of the planned settlement. The first to arrive were those who lived in town of Lunenberg and had farm lots throughout the peninsula, including Mahone Bay. They arrived under the leadership of mariner Ephraim Cook. The people who settled on the Lunenburg Peninsula, including the present-day village of Mahone Bay, were foreign protestants who were German, Swiss, and Montbéliardais settlers.[7]

During the French and Indian War, there were nine Native and Acadian (Catholic) raids against the protestant settlers on the Lunenburg Peninsula. One such raid – the Raid on Lunenburg (1756) – happened just off the shores of Mahone Bay on present-day Covey Island and [John] Rous Island.

Another raid happened on 24 August 1758 in the village of Mahone Bay, when eight Mi’kmaq attacked the family homes of Lay and Brant. While they killed three people in the raid, the Mi’kmaq were unsuccessful in taking their scalps, which was the common practice for payment from the French.[8]

Mills were established at the mouth of each of Mahone Bay’s two rivers and over the decades a separate community evolved at Mahone Bay with blacksmiths, merchants, a large school, churches, and shipyards.