East River Sheet Harbour

East River Sheet Harbour (locally known as East River) is a river on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Its headwaters are at the Marshall Flowage near Malay Falls and the mouth of the river is at the head of the Northeast Arm in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia.

East River Sheet Harbour
Location
CountryCanada
ProvinceNova Scotia
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationMarshall Flowage[1]
Mouth 
 • location
Northeast Arm of Sheet Harbour[2]
 • coordinates
44°33′10″N 62°18′12″W / 44.5529°N 62.3032°W / 44.5529; -62.3032
 • elevation
sea level

East River begins at the Marshall Flowage, near Malay Falls.[1] It flows southwest through the Malay Falls and Ruth Falls Flowages.[2][3][4] Lake Mulgrave, a large lake west of the Marshall Flowage, flows into the Marshall Flowage via the Mulgrave River.[5][6] The Fifteen Mile Stream also flows into the Marshall Flowage from the north. It extends northward, into Guysborough County.[7] Grant River, a short river, flows into the Ruth Falls Flowage.[8] The East River watershed system, along with the neighboring West River system, encompass a total area of 988 km2.[9]

Around 1863, a sawmill was built at the head of the river by Demming & McFarlane, who were a lumber company. The company did not succeed financially however, and was dissolved a few years later.[10] The first sulphide pulp mill in Canada was built by the Halifax Wood Fibre Company in October 1885, at East River, Sheet Harbour.[11] Since the discovery of the sulphite process in 1866, the news had traveled to William Chisholm, a lumber manufacturer in Halifax who had 60 thousand acres (24,281 hectares, or 242 km2) of woodland on the Sheet Harbour rivers. Chisholm decided to try the method out at the head of East River.[12] The mill was closed in January 1891, due to the high costs of importing sulphide from the United States.[13] The cookhouse which was used at the mill was bought by the residents of Watt Section and was floated down the harbour to the community.[14]

The East River Campground is located at the mouth of East River.[15]

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b "Marshall Flowage". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Northeast Arm". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Ruth Falls Flowage". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Malay Falls Flowage". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Mulgrave River". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  6. ^ "Lake Mulgrave". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Fifteen Mile Stream". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  8. ^ "Grant River". Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  9. ^ "T8.1 Freshwater Hydrology" (PDF). Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2003. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  10. ^ Coady 1988, p. 8.
  11. ^ Coady 1988, p. 14-15.
  12. ^ Coady 1988, p. 16-17.
  13. ^ Coady 1988, p. 22.
  14. ^ Coady 1988, p. 23.
  15. ^ "EAST RIVER LODGE CAMPGROUND & TRAILER PARK". Nova Scotia Tourism. Archived from the original on 26 May 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.

Bibliography edit

Coady, Howard (1988). Sheet Harbour History. Lancelot Press Limited. ISBN 0-88999-381-5.