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 Yarmouth is a town and major fishing and ferry port located on the Gulf of Maine in rural southwestern Yarmouth County Nova Scotia, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as "The Gateway to Nova Scotia". Yarmouth is located in the heart of the world's largest lobster fishing grounds and has Canada's highest lobster catch. [3]
[edit] HistoryThe townsite may possibly have been visited by Leif Erikson. A runic stone was found at the nearby village of Overton in 1812. It is interpreted by some to be carved by Erikson, while others feel the markings are natural scratches gradually enhanced over the years. The stone may be seen at the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives. The region was visited in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, who named it Cap Fourchu, and it became a French fishing settlement. In 1759 settlers came to the townsite from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and named it Yarmouth after their former home. The town was founded in 1761, when a larger group of settlers came from Sandwich, Massachusetts. They were then followed by Acadians originally from the Grand Pré district who returned from exile in 1767. Substantial numbers of United Empire Loyalists arrived in 1785. Initially called Cape Forchu, Yarmouth was first laid out in 1759 and incorporated in 1890. Through the 19th century it was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point making more ships per capita than any other port in the world. Yarmouth was considered the richest small town in the world from 1830 to 1880. Yarmouth ships were found in every major port in the world including ships noted for courageous crews such as the ship Research in 1861 and the ship County of Yarmouth in 1884, one of the largest wooden ships ever built in Canada. As wooden shipbuilding declined in the late 1800s, Yarmouth's shipowners re-invested into factories, steamships and railways such as the Western Counties Railway which evolved into the Dominion Atlantic Railway. While steamships had led to the decline of Yarmouth's mighty wooden shipbuilding industry, they also made the port a vital connection between the new Nova Scotia rail lines and steamers for Boston and New York,a role which continues with Yarmouth's ferry connections today. The harbour has remained a major fishing port in Nova Scotia. In 1939, examiners at Yarmouth's Merchant Marine Institution made sefaring history by issuing master's papers to Molly Kool, the first female ship captain in the Western World. [edit] World War II historyOriginally opened in 1940 as three separate training sites (the East Camp, the West Camp and the Air Base) under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, but known collectively as RCAF Station Yarmouth. The East Camp was home to a detachment of the Royal Air Force's No. 34 Operational Training Unit (from RCAF Station Pennfield Ridge), who trained Bomber crews, as well as the Royal Navy's No. 1 Naval Air Gunners School from 1 January 1943 – 30 March 1945. The West Camp was home to the RCAF's Anti-Submarine Bomber Reconnaissance and several Eastern Air Command Bomber Reconnaissance Squadrons. The Air Base was home to the 9th Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery, various RCAF and RAF Bomber Squadrons and an Army Co-operation Reconnaissance Flight. Its primary function was as an administrative and logistical support base to the RAF and RCAF squadrons in the area, in addition to providing a Weather Information Section, an Armament Section and a firing range. Several smaller installations associated with the air station were located in the area: a bombing range at Port Maitland, a fuel depot at Digby, and radar detachments at Plymouth, Tusket and Bear Point, Port Mouton and Rockville. In 1944, a detachment of the US Navy briefly came to Yarmouth to test the effectiveness of a blimp service. After a crash, the RCAF decided against this venture. RCAF Station Yarmouth closed in 1945. The airfield was sold to the Department of Transport in 1946 and became the Yarmouth Airport. The Infantry base (known as Camp 60) on Parade Street also trained 20000 men during the war, primarily basic training and artillery training.[4] A Hudson bomber from Royal Canadian Air Force Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron 113 in Yarmouth became the first aircraft of RCAF's Eastern Air Command to sink a submarine, sinking U-754 about 100 miles south of Yarmouth on July 31, 1942.[5] [edit] Tourism Tourism has been a major industry in Yarmouth since the 1880s when Loran Ellis Baker founded the Yarmouth Steamship Company. Steamship and railway promotion based in Yarmouth created the first tourism marketing in Nova Scotia.[6] Baker's steamships operated between Yarmouth and Boston until 1900, when the company was purchased by the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The DAR and Halifax and Southwestern Railway offered connections for passengers arriving in Yarmouth with steamship services operating to New York City and Boston. This service continued until the 1950s. Canadian National Railways instituted a ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine in the 1950s and this was continued by CN Marine and Marine Atlantic until 1997. Access to Yarmouth is primarily by Highway 101 - North Shore, Highway 103 - South Shore, the Yarmouth International Airport with flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Portland, Maine and The Cat - Bay Ferries: see below. In 1998 operation of the Bar Harbor route was transferred to Bay Ferries Limited which currently operates a high-speed catamaran ferry - HSC The Cat. In the 1970s an American tourist cruise company, Prince of Fundy Cruises, began operating a conventional cruise-ferry between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth. This operation continued as Scotia Prince Cruises until April 2005. The ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland has been resumed by The Cat (2006) on weekends, whereas on weekdays the Cat sails between Yarmouth Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor Maine daily. Yarmouth is home to the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives which preserves the history of the town and surrounding county from a reconstructed former church as well as two historic houses and the Killam building on the Yarmouth waterfront.[7] The Nova Scotia Firefighters Museum and Sweeney Fisheries Museum are also located in Yarmouth. The town is only located a few kilometers away from the well-known Cape Forchu Lighthouse which is located in the small community of Cape Forchu. The lighthouse is stationed at the end of the peninsula that guards Yarmouth Harbour. A popular but unproven belief in Yarmouth holds that the American composer Meredith Wilson wrote his well-known song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel. (A "Grand Hotel" is mentioned in the song, but Grand Hotel was a popular name used by many hotels in numerous towns and cities. A park is also mentioned near the Grand Hotel which could be in reference to Frost Park across the street) [edit] Demographics
Income:
Education:
[edit] Climate
 [edit] EducationThe town of Yarmouth is home to a high school an adult high school, a junior high school and three elementary schools. It is also home to a Nova Scotia Community College campus and the Dalhousie University School of Nursing that can be taken at the local hospital.
[edit] Public Library The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library has served as the town's public library since 1963. The library offers many services including free computer and wireless Internet access to library patrons. It the largest branch of Western Counties Regional Library and houses the regional library's headquarters. The regional library was launched on Oct. 29, 1969, establishing library services for Digby, Shelburne and Yarmouth counties. [edit] Notable residents[edit] Media
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