Pictou

Pictou (Canadian Gaelic: Baile Phiogto ) is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km (6 miles) north of the larger town of New Glasgow.

Once an active shipping port and the shire town of the county, today Pictou is primarily a local service centre for surrounding rural communities and the primary tourist destination in this region of Nova Scotia.

The name Pictou derives from the Mi'kmaq name Piktuk, meaning "explosive place", a reference to the river of pitch that was found in the area, or perhaps from methane bubbling up from coal seams below the harbour.

History
Pictou Town had been the location of an annual Mi'kmaq summer coastal community prior to European settlement. Pictou was part of the Epekwitk aq Piktuk Mi'kmaq District, which included present-day Prince Edward Island and Pictou.

The town of Pictou was a receiving point for many Scottish immigrants moving to a new home in northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island following the Highland Clearances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first wave of immigrants arrived on September 15, 1773, on the Hector. While there were a significant number of Scottish people settled in other parts of Nova Scotia at the time Pictou was settled, the town's tourism slogan is "The Birthplace of New Scotland", which is based on being the first primarily made up Scottish immigrants and the ship Hector being recognized as the first immigrant ship to sail directly from Scotland to what is now Canada. Pictou today contains many important examples of stone housing constructed by those early generations of Scottish immigrant, which have clear connections to architectural styles and design in Scotland itself.

When the Hector arrived, there were already a few families in Pictou that had arrived on the Betsy six years earlier. The town has an indirect connection to Scottish settlement in New Zealand; the Reverend Norman McLeod emigrated to Pictou from Scotland some years after the Hector but eventually re-settled with his parishioners at St. Ann's on Cape Breton Island. He later encouraged his parishioners to move to Waipu where there are still many descendants from Pictou and St. Ann's.

During the American Revolution, in November 1777 at Pictou, American privateers from Machias captured the ship Molly, under the command of Captain William Lowden. Local resident Wellwood Waugh was implicated in the raid on Pictou and was forced to move to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. He became a prominent inhabitant and Waugh River is named after him.

In 1812 Sir Hector Maclean (the 7th Baronet of Morvern and 23rd Chief of the Clan Maclean) emigrated to Pictou from Glensanda and Kingairloch in Scotland with almost the entire population of 500. Sir Hector is buried in the cemetery at Pictou.

During the latter part of the 19th century, Pictou's industrial sector gained strength. The Intercolonial Railway was built to the town on a spur from the Stellarton-Oxford Junction "Short Line". Shipbuilding increased through the 19th century, particularly with the increase in coal being shipped from Pictou Landing, Abercrombie and the East River of Pictou. A number of shipyards have been continuously established in the town since this period. A notable shipbuilding accomplishment was the speedy construction of 24 Park ship freighters by the newly created Pictou Shipyard in World War II. After the war the shipyard continued operation building many fishing trawlers and ferries. The port's cargo activity increased after the nearby Scott Maritimes pulp mill opened in Abercrombie in 1965. CN Rail abandoned its service to the town in the late 1980s but other transportation – including Highway 106 (the Trans-Canada Highway) – opened in the 1970s to provide alternatives.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Pictou had a population of living in  of its  total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of. With a land area of 7.99 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Education
Pictou Academy is the town's high school and was founded in 1803 by Dr. Thomas McCulloch, who was travelling to his new clergy posting on Prince Edward Island. He was convinced to stay the winter and ended up remaining in Pictou for much longer. Disappointed by the lack of education among Pictonians, Dr. McCulloch decided to start a "college". There was considerable argument between Dr. Thomas McCulloch and Nova Scotia's provincial government for funding however it finally became a reality in 1816 when the Pictou Academy was incorporated. The province of Nova Scotia would not let it be named a "college," as such, but it was a school of higher education (senior matriculation) which was open to people of every race and denomination.

Between 1816 and the present, Pictou Academy has been in four separate buildings. The school was moved from its original building to a new site, while the second and third buildings both burned down. There were Academy graduates from every year since it was incorporated, excluding the years between several of its different buildings.

At the start of the school year of 2003–2004, all high schools in Pictou County were closed, and their students began to go to the two new "superschools", Northumberland Regional High School, and North Nova Education Centre, for their education. The only exception to this is Pictou Academy, which continues to operate.

The town operates a small library and C@P site.

Events
The Pictou Lobster Carnival takes place annually in early July at the former train station. The Lobster Carnival is a yearly event celebrating the end of the fishing season and has been celebrated since 1934. The carnival includes a midway, 'Rock the Lobster' concerts, a pageant, breakfasts, a car show, fireworks, a beer garden, crate runs, hauling/net cutting contests, boat races, and lobster dinners. As of 2024, it is the longest-running active lobster festival in North America. It draws thousands to the town annually for the event.

The town also used to host a large celebration for Ship Hector Festival in August. This ended in the early 2010s, although there are still New Scotland Days celebrations in September. The celebrations centre on the ship Hector and include a Celtic church service and a descendants reunion.

In 2023, for the 250th Anniversary of the landing of the Ship Hector, the town received federal and provincial funding to support a three-month long celebration. The main celebrations consisted of evening concerts on a waterfront stage, a daily vendor market, the rededication of the No. 2 Construction Battalion monument, the church service, descendants reunion, the Voyage musical about the Hector, and a visits from the Governor General of Canada and the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. The headliners for the concerts included Ashley MacIsaac, Cassie & Maggie, Terra Spencer, Mary Beth Carty, Ray Stewart, Amelia Parker, Christina Martin, Jud Gunning, Steve MacIntyre, Morgan Toney, Darren McMullen, Rachel Davis, Rum Ragged, Terry Kelly, DeeDee Austin, and the Barra MacNeils.





Museums
The primary tourist attraction in Pictou Town is the waterfront along Pictou Town Harbour. During the 1990s–2000s, industrial land on the Pictou Town waterfront was redeveloped with the centrepiece being construction of the replica tall ship Hector. Now completed, the ship is docked each summer at the Hector Heritage Quay, an interpretive centre that includes three floors of exhibits, as well as access to the floating replica. From 2020 to 2024. Next door to the Hector Heritage Quay is the Northumberland Fisheries Museum, Lobster Hatchery, and Lighthouse Museum.

Grohmann Knives Ltd., the only knife manufacturing factory in Canada, are the sole producers of the historic D.H. Russell Belt Knives and Grohmann Kitchen Knives for over 50 years. Free factory tours of the plant are offered to the public on Water Street.

The McCulloch House Museum on the edge of downtown offers an archives and research centre and a nineteenth-century house museum.

Architecture
Besides the museum aspect of the McCulloch House, the 19th century home once belonged to Rev. Dr. Thomas McCulloch. It is one of many examples of centuries-old houses in Pictou. The downtown is home to several 'Scottish' designed buildings that include locally sourced sandstone and five-sided dormers. A book dedicated to the history of each old home and building is available at the museum.

The waterfront redevelopment also features a marina and small boardwalk that connects to the Trans-Canada Trail. The historic Intercolonial Railway station (pictured above) on the waterfront has been restored and connects to the waterfront by the old customs house.

Other
There are several monuments around the town, including the Hector Settler in Market Square, the No. 2 Construction Battalion monuments on the waterfront, and the cenotaph on Church Street. The war cenotaph was sculpted by the renowned George Hill.

Boat Tours through Discover the Strait are available, offering various trips to see the harbour and the wildlife in the Northumberland Strait. The waterfront is also home to a marine and cruise ship docks, allowing boat-bound tourists to dock.

Pictou Town is 5 kilometres south of the port of Caribou where Northumberland Ferries Limited operates a seasonal vehicle-pedestrian ferry service to Prince Edward Island; there is also a pedestrian-only ferry that operates seasonally to Pictou Island. Several beaches are located near Pictou Town, most notably Caribou Provincial Park and Waterside Beach Provincial Park. The Jitney Trail also starts at the waterfront. The former train route has been converted into a paved and gravel walkway for pedestrians and runs from Pictou to Oxford, Nova Scotia. The trail also connects to Brown's Point, just a few kilometres outside of Pictou, where the Hector landed.



Notable people

 * Peter Crerar, civil engineer, came to Pictou Town from Scotland in 1817. Designed and built the Albion Mines Railway, the first standard gauge railroad in North America.
 * Sir John William Dawson, born in Pictou Town in 1820. He resided in Pictou Town until 1840, when he travelled to Scotland to complete his education in geology and natural history at the University of Edinburgh. He returned to Nova Scotia in 1842 and served as superintendent of education from 1850 to 1853. In 1855, he moved to Montreal, Quebec, to become the principal of McGill University, a position he held with distinction until 1893.
 * Henry Hatton, merchant, shipbuilder, and political figure
 * George Hill (RCAF officer), flying ace of the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War
 * William Lowden, the first shipbuilder in Pictou Town
 * Carmen MacDonald, an ice hockey goaltender for the St. Lawrence Saints, a university team from New York State. She won a gold medal as part of Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team at the 2010 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship in Chicago.
 * Christie MacDonald, American stage actress & singer (1875–1962)
 * Joey MacDonald, a former NHL goaltender
 * James Drummond MacGregor, first published abolitionist in Canada
 * Arthur Stanley Mackenzie, president of Dalhousie University

Vessels
Three naval vessels have been named for Pictou, two Royal Navy schooners during the War of 1812 (see: HMS Pictou), and HMCS Pictou, a Flower-class corvette that served in the Atlantic during World War II.