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Outdoor Nova Scotia: "The Best Way to be Informed."
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Float on Historic
Inland Waterways! by Kevin MacDonell May 3rd, 1998 Antigonish, N. S. - St. Peters Canal is familiar to pleasure boaters passing from the ocean into the Bras D'Or Lake, the watery heart of Cape Breton Island. Probably few aboard those canoes, sailboats and power cruisers, however, realize the importance of the canal to the island's history. Canada Post (www.canadapost.ca) will recognize the canal with a new stamp to be issued June 17. The collection of ten stamps blends illustrations of six historic canals with images of modern recreation use. Long before the St. Peters Canal was built, the Micmac people travelled the narrow strip of land, portaging their canoes across the isthmus. With the arrival of European fur traders in the early 1600s, the old portage trail became a "haulover road" where oxen or men pulled merchant ships from one shore to the other. Early in the19th century, the haulover road was used to transfer ships to the inland waterway, a shorter and more protected route to the growing settlements around Sydney. The volume of shipping steadily increasing, work on a navigation channel began in 1854. It took 15 years of digging, blasting and drilling to make an opening averaging 30 meters wide through a solid granite hill 20 meters high. Widening and other renovations continued until 1917. Double lock gates were built at both entrances of the 800-meter canal to counter ocean and lake tides. Today, commercial vessels are seen only occasionally. This site, where ships laden with Cape Breton coal, limestone and gypsum once passed, is now a good place for a quiet picnic or a pleasure cruise. - for more general Cape Breton history and history
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