Long Cove, Nova Scotia

Aerial video below:

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Nature Trust and Nova Scotia Environment Property
aerial video below:

After starting video click on icon in lower right corner for full screen 

A little history 

Long Cove circa 1950's photo by Ralph Morton

In the summer of 1981, a girlfriend and I decided to go somewhere for the summer neither of us had ever been (we lived in Atlanta). We met a man from Nova Scotia on the beach in Florida so that's where we decided to go.  

We lived in an old house in Port Medway which we agreed to fix up for the owner, 

One afternoon I rode my bike all the way down Long Cove Road past the lighthouse to the end. I remember thinking as I passed a field of wild flowers in bloom by the edge of the sea that the natural world was "still here" and that I was lucky to come this way and have that revelation. When I got to the end of the road I found some sheds, a few boats, and across the Cove an old fishing operation complete with two story barn and cottage. 

I had that odd sense of deja vu.

In 1985, the place was for sale by the son of the original owner, Archie Smith.  Smith was something of a legend in the area. He had been the "Harbour Master" for Queens County for as long as anyone could remember. His private fishing operation was in Long Cove and was a complex of buildings and storage facilities that he shared with a handful of local fisherman.  Long Cove was their kingdom by the sea. In the 1950's Smith engineered a major improvement for the Cove in the way of two huge jetties that stabilized and protected the Cove from storms and made the entrance to the Cove from the Atlantic quite a sea gate into the quiet waters beyond.

In 1986, I acquired the property - 1.2 acres, a two story barn, a fisherman's cottage, a goat shed, an outhouse, and a dug well.  Back then the barn was surrounded by wharves, had a shed roof over the main wharf, and a narrow bridge to the fisherman's cottage.  My 17 foot Golden Hawk canoe was perfect for the 90 second paddle from the wharf on the other side to the barn anchorage.

But I soon decided that a 12 foot Aqua-Nautic aluminium rowboat would be a lot more useful for bringing supplies and repair materials across. I even used it for transporting two wood stoves. In those days it was just me and the fishermen and a fellow from Halifax who came down on weekends to enjoy the solitude. Fixing up the fisherman's cottage and barn was a summertime activity that I looked forward to every year. I could sit in the most boring meeting at work and doodle away at how I was going to repair something. Lot's of good friends came out to help and give advice on the best way to do things - locally and from as far away as New York City and Texas.

In 1989 I did an avafauna study with a researcher from Dalhousie University - please click the results are here. and I became the official steward of the Nature Trust Property requiring me to make reports on the state of the property each year.


For pictures and descriptions of property features see the items listed at the top right side of this blog above.  To enlarge the pictures just click on them.

For pictures of Port Medway where Long Cove is located click HERE.