Historical
May 25 2026

Stewardship or Surrender: The Future of New Brunswick Parks & Heritage Sites

Historical, Nature & Conservation, People & Places, Travel & Tourism
by Deborah Carr

The Holt government’s plan to close provincial parks and heritage sites has shocked many—especially as $1.6 million goes out‑of‑province to a Blue Jays marketing campaign. These closures will hurt rural communities that rely on the tourism, jobs, and community pride these places create. But more than that, it’s a sharp betrayal of what New Brunswickers value.

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In October 2014, following a multi-day road trip around the province collecting interviews and research for an article I was writing, my husband and I were finally headed home. We were cruising down Highway 17 in the northern part of the province, admiring the rich hues of the autumn landscape, when I spotted a memorial stone flanked by wooden fencing at roadside. Curious, we threw out the anchor, turned around and went back.

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Aug 01 2024

Resource to Recreation

Historical, Nature & Conservation
by Deborah Carr

(Excerpt from Saltscapes Magazine Aug/Sept 2024)

How a New Brunswick village turned an industrial wasteland into a sylvan refuge

The breeze off the water has an edge to it and I pause beside a stand of common reed along the marsh trail leading to the Petitcodiac River. They whiffle back and forth and I listen to their soothing music for a moment before climbing the riverside dyke towards two towering silos, leftovers from a gypsum industry that closed in the 1980s. The marsh wasn’t so quiet back then.

From this vantage, I look back towards the village of Hillsborough, N.B., tucked into the lee of the hills that inspired its name. A variety of landscapes stretch before me: patches of young forest, hay pastures and wildflower meadows, seas of greening cattails bordering a trio of shallow ponds. Habitat for geese and ducks, warblers and hawks, muskrats and beaver, coyote and fox — a diversity of wildlife that changes with the seasons. One spring, I walked here with a birder and he spotted 52 different species in an hour.

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Apr 01 2017

The Lightkeeper’s Daughters

Articles, Award Winners, Historical, People & Places
by Deborah Carr

(Saltscapes Magazine, Apr/May 2017; Atlantic Journalism Awards Magazine Article silver finalist)

New Brunswick’s Grindstone Island is a storied place with a history etched in stone

Grindstone Island. Named for the sandstone once quarried from its cliffs and reefs, this tiny Bay of Fundy island marks the spot where the salty waters of Shepody Bay flow past the hook of Mary’s Point into Chignecto Bay.

Its lighthouse sits atop a bluff overlooking ‘Five Fathom Hole’, once a deep anchorage for ships even at low tide. The stones along its shore bear fossils from tropical times, the names of those who lived here, and others who wished to leave their mark.

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Aug 16 2009

The Return of the Revolving Light

Articles, Historical, People & Places
by Deborah Carr

On September 12, 1875, a three-masted barque named Revolving Light slid from the slipway at Turner Shipyard in Harvey Bank, NB, amid cheers of onlookers. She lurched forward as a tugboat towed her, pennants flashing, through the tidal waters of the Shepody River and into the Bay of Fundy. At 196 feet long, the 1,338-ton ship was beautiful, graceful and sturdy.

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