Accommodations Nova Scotia
Your Guide To Accommodations In Nova Scotia
Wallace, Nova Scotia
Wallace is a picturesque village with a diverse cultural
heritage. The remnants of Mi’kmaq habitation and the Acadian Dykes
are visible reminders of our first Native and European settlers.
This fishing and hunting community was then called Remsheg, meaning
“the place between”, in the original Mi’kmaq language. The most
obvious reminder of the Acadian settlers living in the Wallace area are the dykes.
Dyked farm land is still clearly
visible and confirming that several families farmed and lived in
Remsheg. The several hard working families that toiled over the rich
soil were deported by the English in what is called the Expulsion of
the Acadians.
Local author Francis Grant wrote that the male French
settlers were marched to Tatamagouche and loaded on ships for
expulsion, to the American seaboard, in August 1755. One of his
stories suggests the female Acadians were left behind. After the
English left French settlers from Ilse St. Jean, (Prince Edward
Island) came to the area to rescue the women and children left
behind. Between 80,000 and 100,000 loyalists migrated from the
American Colonies.
Approximately 35,000 came to the Maritimes. The
Loyalists that settled in Wallace were from Westchester New York.
The Loyalists were given 239 acre lots in the recently surveyed
township of Remsheg. There were granted farm lands and an additional
three acre lot in the Township. The descendants of many of these
families are still in the Wallace area today. Some of the families
are: Brown, Dotten, Forshner, Piers, Purdy and Tuttle.
The legacy
left from the heyday of Wallace sandstone continues to be a source
of pride for the local area. In it’s long history, Wallace sandstone
has graced buildings from Halifax to San Francisco and forms part of
the Peace Tower of the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa.
Architect Robert Scott, who was commissioned to build the Nova
Scotia Legislature in 1811, opened the first quarry in the area.
Eventually several quarries opened along the Wallace River and two
in Wallace. Wallace sandstone had many uses from sidewalk blocks,
breakwaters, head stones, but is most famous for its building stone.
The history of Wallace sandstone goes back much further than the
nineteenth century, when humans first worked the stone. The story of
Wallace sandstone begins 300 million of years ago when the sandstone
formed from the bed of a gigantic river created by the formation of
the Appalachian Mountain range. This fast flowing river deposited
beautiful clean sand as it wound its way through North Eastern North
America and out into the Atlantic Ocean. History of the quarries and
some of the fine stone buildings they contributed to, is available
at the Museum.
