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32-595: The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits at Cape Chignecto and is delineated by the massive basalt headlands of Cape Split and Cape d'Or . The Minas Basin is divided into four sections: (1) the Minas Channel, from the shortest line between Cape Chignecto and the Annapolis Valley Shore to Minas Passage, between Parrsboro and Cape Blomidon ; (2) Central Minas Basin, from Minas Passage to

64-552: A form of polderisation . Burntcoat Head , located on the "Noel Shore" along the south side of the Minas Basin, is the location of the highest tidal range ever recorded, exceeding 16-metre (52 ft) (during a spring tide only) and has one of the highest average tidal ranges every day. The waters of Minas Bay exchange with the main part of the Bay of Fundy through the Minas Channel which flows between Cape Split and Cape Sharp, creating extremely strong tidal currents. Near Cape d'Or,

96-420: A lighthouse for the port of Walton was included in a list of lighthouses to be built if there were sufficient funds. After the lighthouse ended up not being built in 1857, residents of Walton brought the matter up again in 1860. Records after that are silent, and it wouldn’t be until after Confederation that Walton would get its sought-after lighthouse. The Department of Marine published the following information on

128-565: A means of transporting commodities such as lumber, apples and gypsum and powered Tide mills at locations such as Canning , Hantsport and Walton . Mining included gypsum (several locations including Windsor and Cheverie), iron (Londonderry), barite (near Walton and the Eureka Mine at Five Islands), manganese (several locations including Cheverie and Tennycape), and copper (the Colonial Copper Company at Cape d'Or ). Gypsum

160-638: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Walton, Nova Scotia Walton is a village in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia , located in the Municipal District of East Hants , Nova Scotia . The community is named after John Nutting 's son James Walton Nutting (who was named after his mother Mary Walton). Acadians lived in the village before the Expulsion of the Acadians . At that time

192-632: Is a headland located on the Bay of Fundy coast of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia . Cape Chignecto is located at the westernmost tip of Cumberland County and is the western limit of the Cobequid Hills , a low mountain range that is part of the Appalachian Mountains and extends across the northern part of the Nova Scotia peninsula . The cape bifurcates the Bay of Fundy into Chignecto Bay to

224-448: Is one of the world's largest barite deposits. The mine is Canada's largest barite mine, and accounted for 90% of Canadian barite production in the 1960s. In addition to barite, the mine also contains deposits of lead, zinc, silver, and copper. A small barite outcrop has been known since at least 1894. The outcrop was rediscovered in 1940 by Roscoe Hiltz, who brought it to the attention of Springer Sturgeon Gold Mines Ltd. The importance of

256-474: The Avon River . Rarely, fossils have been found at Evangeline Beach, Burntcoat Head, and other locations. These fossils include various shells ( brachiopods , molluscs ), sponges , trees , fish , amphibians , reptiles , and dinosaurs . Trace fossils include vertebrate footprints, fish fin-tracks , invertebrate trackways (ex. scorpions at Blue Beach), raindrop imprints, and wave ripples. They range from

288-709: The Canard River , Diligent River, Farrell River , and the Debert River. Along the northern edge of the Minas Basin lies a chain of intermittent high-cliffed basaltic bluffs and islands called the Basalt Headlands . On the northern shore of the Minas Basin, around the Gaspereau River , and around the Salmon River , extensive areas of farmland have been created using dykes with sluices (one-way flow control valves),

320-642: The "Baie des Mines"', later Anglicized to Minas Basin. French Acadian settlements began in the late 1600s first with settlements around the southern shore of the Minas Basin which became known as Les Mines . The Acadians had a particularly significant impact on the area in that they reclaimed considerable farmland through the use of dykes and aboiteaux . They founded in the area Grand-Pré , Les Mines , Pisiguit , Cobequid , Rivière-aux-Canards , and Beaubassin . Even today their dyke systems—greatly expanded by later additions—are still used near Truro and Wolfville at Port Williams and Grand Pré . In 1755,

352-569: The British forcibly expelled the over 12,000 Acadians from Grand Pré , Pisiguit , Cobequid , and Beaubassin , in what became known as the Grand Dérangement, or Great Expulsion . During the Acadian era, virtually all inhabitants lived in distributed clusters or villages , with no single place dominating. The area was administered from Port Royal, later Annapolis Royal . The following table shows

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384-657: The Minas Basin were sustained by fishing , logging , farming , mining , boat building and shipbuilding . In the late 19th Century the Basin's shipyards produced some of the highest numbers of wooden ships in Canadian history and some of the largest, including the ship William D. Lawrence , the largest wooden ship built in Canada along with the giant barques Kings County , Canada's largest four masted-barque and Hamburg , Canada's largest three-masted barque. The tidal water also provided

416-1034: The Minas Basin. Community parks interpreting the Basin include the Kingsport waterfront in Kings County ; the Walton Lighthouse and Burntcoat Head Lighthouse in Hants County and the Lookout Tower in Economy and the Ottawa House Museum in Parrsboro in Cumberland County . The Mi'kmaq were the first people to inhabit the area around the Minas Basin. Mi'kmaq tradition ties the god Glooscap in with significant geographical features such as Cape Blomidon and Five Islands . European explorers and traders arrived in

448-461: The area. Francis Parker was responsible for jump starting a lot of the local industry. He opened a gypsum mine in 1820 and exported the rock from the harbour. He also built the first sawmill on Walton River in 1837, and he opened a shipyard in the harbour around 1850. Parker’s 557-tonne barque Walton, launched in 1855, was one of the largest of the more than twenty-five vessels that were built in Walton over

480-481: The barite deposit is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the Carboniferous Windsor Group, and marked by two major sets of faults, oriented east-west and northwest-southeast. A small local volunteer fire department is located in Walton, going by the name of Walton Shore Volunteer Fire Department . The fire department has hosted a "Field Day" every summer, usually at the end of July, consisting of games and

512-598: The basalts include calcite , magnetite , copper , and quartz (often as amethyst ). Beautiful agate is also found. In the sedimentary rocks, gypsum is commonly found at Blomidon, Clarke Head, and near Windsor in both the colorless variety (selenite) and the fibrous variety (satin spar), the latter sometimes being bright orange. Other minerals from the sedimentary rocks include pyrite , calcite , barite , manganite , and pyrolusite . Small amounts of fluorite , celestite , howlite have also been found at Cheverie. Cape Chignecto, Nova Scotia Cape Chignecto

544-617: The beginning of the Carboniferous to the Jurassic . They were deposited when the region was warm and tropical , later when it was covered by a shallow sea, and later still when it was a desert . Minerals include a variety zeolites from the basalt cliffs at Cape Split, the area around Parrsboro, Five Islands and Cap D'Or. These include Nova Scotia's provincial mineral stilbite , as well as heulandite , analcime , chabazite , gmelinite , natrolite and thomsonite . Other minerals found in

576-480: The combined flow of all the rivers and streams on Earth together (about 4-cubic-kilometre (0.96 cu mi) per hour). Several communities border the Minas Basin or the rivers that flow into it. The largest is the town of Truro which lies at the head of Cobequid Bay. Smaller centres include Parrsboro , Wolfville , Windsor and Maitland . Other communities include Great Village , Bass River , Five Islands , Economy , Walton , and Kingsport . Historically,

608-544: The community was named Petit Rivier. The Acadians built dykes and four dwellings. When Acadians lived in the area that is now the village of Walton, the settlement was known as Petite Riviere, after the small stream that empties into Minas Basin there. Following the Expulsion of the Acadians, New England Planters and Loyalists moved in. The settlement was renamed Walton in 1836 in honour of James Walton, whose daughter and son-in-law, John and Mary Nutting, owned extensive property in

640-482: The deposit was quickly realized, and the mine started producing barite in 1941. Production was initially operated by Canadian Industrial Minerals, a subsidiary of Springer Sturgeon, then leased to Magnet Cove Barium Corporation in 1955. While conducting a diamond drilling program, the Nova Scotia Department of Mines revealed a lead-zinc-silver-copper ore body beneath the large barite deposit. In 1970, flooding

672-532: The early 1600s. Among them were the French explorer Samuel de Champlain who explored the copper deposits at Cape d'Or at the entrance to the Basin in 1607. Champlain bestowed the name Port of Mines onto the nearby Advocate Harbour to reflect the seams of copper ore at Cape d'Or. While the French did not establish a mine, the name "Les Mines" became associated with the upper Bay of Fundy beyond Cape d'Or which became known as

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704-529: The ghost towns of Eatonville and New Yarmouth . The nearest inhabited village is Advocate, Nova Scotia . The name "Chignecto" derives from the Mi'kmaw name Siknikt, meaning "drainage place", the name of the Mi'kmaq District in which the cape is located. 45°20′00″N 64°56′57″W  /  45.33333°N 64.94917°W  / 45.33333; -64.94917 This Cumberland County, Nova Scotia location article

736-679: The mouth of Cobequid Bay, the shortest line point between Economy and the Noel Shore; (3) Cobequid Bay which extends to the mouth of the Salmon River ; and (4) the Southern Bight, from the mouth of the Avon River to the shortest line between Cape Blomidon and the Noel Shore. Several large rivers drain into the Minas Basin: the Shubenacadie River , Cornwallis River , Avon River , Gaspereau River , and Salmon River . Lesser rivers include

768-460: The newly completed Walton Lighthouse in its annual report for 1874: The village was later granted to Loyalists , John Nutting , who gave the community to his son James Walton Nutting (who was named after his mother Mary Walton). Walton became a shipbuilding centre in the 19th century. Among the large vessels built was the namesake barque Walton built in 1855. Many of the ships built in Walton were used to carry gypsum and later barite which

800-483: The next thirty years. Mining, shipbuilding, and lumbering were all active industries in the harbour for many decades. Walton Harbour Lighthouse with ship being loaded at dock In 1855, John Mosher and others petitioned the government of Nova Scotia for a lighthouse to mark the entrance to the harbour at Walton. A committee of the House of Assembly did not recommend the building of the lighthouse at that time, but two years later,

832-474: The north and southern sides of the basin were connected by a succession of ferries, which operated for more than 200 years, from Acadian times to 1941. The last ferry connected Parrsboro, Wolfville, and Kingsport and was called the MV Kipawo ferry, whose name was derived from the three communities. Provincial parks at Anthony (near Truro), Five Islands , and Cape Blomidon allow visitors to enjoy and explore

864-605: The north and the Minas Channel, leading to the Minas Basin to the east. Since 1998 the cape has been located within Cape Chignecto Provincial Park , the largest provincial park in the province and a renowned wilderness reserve. The cape features a rugged topography with reportedly the highest cliffs on the Nova Scotia peninsula, created by the upthrusting Cobequid fault . The cape is mostly uninhabited. It includes

896-571: The population of the region during the Acadian era: The vacant Acadian settlements around the Minas Basin were succeeded by the New England Planters who arrived in 1760 and were later joined by Loyalists settlers in the 1780s. The Planters maintained operation of the ferry, rebuilt and expanded the Acadian dyke systems, and reclaimed more farmland from the Basin through projects like the Wellington Dyke in 1816. The communities around

928-452: The turbulent collision of currents is known as the Dory Rips . The water in Minas Basin is a dense and nearly opaque reddish brown due to large amounts of suspended silt which are continually churned by tidal currents. At mid-tide, the currents exceed 8 knots (4-metre (13 ft) per second), and the flow in the deep, 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) -wide channel on the north side of Cape Split equals

960-478: Was caused by a blast in one of the large fault zones. The flood water became brackish after a few months and in 1976 the mine began phase-out operations. Production ended in February 1978, leaving nearly one million tons of material underground. The mine produced over 4.3 million tonnes of barite during its 30-year life. The original barite wharf in Walton was burned down by arson on August 9, 2012. The region around

992-414: Was mined locally (see below). The Walton lighthouse was built in 1873 and still marks its presence along the coastline. It aided ships into the port of Walton for many years until the shipping industry declined in the 1970s. Now the lighthouse is a heritage landmark of Nova Scotia and a municipal heritage site. Located about 4 km southwest of Walton, Nova Scotia, the Walton barite mine (1941-1978)

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1024-590: Was shipped from Hantsport until 2009. There have been attempts to generate energy from the rough waters of Minas Basin. However, the attempts were not successful. Marine mammals include seals and porpoises . Fish include bass , shad, and flounder ; lobster , crab , mussel , and clam are common. Many types of seaweed , sponges , worms , seajellys and more are also found. Birds include sandpipers , terns (visitors only), eagles , falcons , seagulls , herons , and kingfishers . Fossils are found near Parrsboro , Blue Beach and other areas along

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