The importance of the Tatamagouche waterfront to local
inhabitants can be traced as far back as the Mi’kmaq who first
inhabited the area naming it from their word "meeting place of the
waters". However, it was not until the influx of the Scottish
settlers that the Tatamagouche waterfront, nestled between the
Northumberland Strait and the Cobequid Mountains, truly became an
integral part of everyday life.
During the late 1700’s and most of the 1800’s, as Scottish settler’s
began to flood the area, the Tatamagouche waterfront became the
lifeblood of the local inhabitants. The major mode of transportation
would have been by ship and during the age of sail, numerous wharves
dotted the waterfront. Here goods flowed both in and out and the
ships that hauled the goods could be seen being built. To most if
not all it was an integral part of life. The waterfront was the
means of communication; it was here where the mail came and news of
the outside world filtered in.
Today the community is amazingly well equipped for a village that
has a population of approximately 700 (within the village
boundaries). The larger local area, however, provides over ten times
that number. As well, in the summer, the population swells even more
due to the tourism industry.
The economy of the area is one of contrast. Primary industry
(farming, fishing, forestry), along with tourism and a growing
information technology industry (computer based business, graphics,
internet) operate side by side in a very exciting and vibrant mix of
old and new.
Tatamagouche remains an area of old and new. A village of old
Victorian homes and stores built in the late 1800s, intertwined with
modern houses and facilities; a village encompassing a slow
traditional way of life with state of the art technology.