The hubris of Shubenacadie
The history of Shubenacadie Canal is one of geology, but it's also one of hubris with parallels into the modern day.
Canals, fracking, and the Yarmouth ferry
by Katy Jean
Dartmouth’s Shubie Park helps visitors escape the blazing hot sun and also escape the mental horrors of the planet burning and economy crashing down around us in general.
Fearless squirrels, panting dogs, and ducks subsisting on bread alone all walk the gravel path of historical financial ruin on the Shubenacadie Canal.
The canal was first pitched in 1796 to connect Halifax Harbour to the Shubenacadie (settlers’ poor attempt at pronouncing Sipekne’katik) River. This would allow a new trade route for boats and ships to travel through instead of around Nova Scotia.
It was immediately shut down. It would be a lot of work. Expensive work.
Then it popped back up in 1824 with a proposed feasibility study by Francis Hall. The canals were Hall’s idea in the first place, he was an engineer who worked on canals in Scotland, and when he proposed a similar canal for New Scotland, the legislature asked him to do a feasibility study.
At that time there was some confusion on how to spell Shubenacadie. Sometimes it was Subenaccadie with two C’s. Struggling to spell the canal they were building was first of many red flags that would fly but never sail.
The plan was to build 19 locks. This would go from the Shubenacadie River, Grand Lake, Lake Charles and the then named First and Second Lake, now known as Banook and Mic Mac.
Because lakes can change names or spellings, and have. I digress.
