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Planters
1760 – 1763

("Planters" means colonists or settlers)

Photographs of
Monument

Horton Landing
Hortonville
Kings County
Nova Scotia

GPS location:   45°06'48"N   64°16'47"W

9 June 2005
Meeting at Horton Landing

Looking northward

Photographed on 9 June 2005

Left to right:
 1:   John Whidden, Wolfville Historical Society
 2:   John Vaillancourt, Wolfville Historical Society
 3:   Joe Kinsman, Executive Assistant to the Hon. David Morse, MLA
 4:   Beth Keech, Grand Pre Heritage Society
 5:   Theresa Bunbury, Parks Canada
 6:   Bria Stokesbury, Kings County Museum
 7:   David Baldwin, Apple Capital Museum
 8:   Gordon Haliburton, Chair, Kings Heritage Connection
 9:   Roger Hetu, Les Amis de Grand Pré

The original bronze plaque that has been here since 1960.

Photographed on 9 June 2005

Left to right:
  1:   John Whidden, Wolfville Historical Society
  2:   Joe Kinsman, Executive Assistant to the Hon. David Morse, MLA
  3:   Beth Keech, Grand Pre Heritage Society
  4:   John Vaillancourt, Wolfville Historical Society
  5:   Bria Stokesbury, Kings County Museum
  6:   Roger Hetu, Les Amis de Grand Pré
  7:   Theresa Bunbury, Parks Canada
  8:   David Baldwin, Apple Capital Museum
  9:   Brian Ward, Nova Scotia Department of Transport (black jacket)
10:   Nova Scotia Department of Transport (behind B. Ward)

Photographed on 9 June 2005

Left to right:
 1:   Roger Hetu, Les Amis de Grand Pré
 2:   Theresa Bunbury, Parks Canada
 3:   John Vaillancourt, Wolfville Historical Society
 4:   Gordon Haliburton, Chair, Kings Heritage Connection
 5:   John Whidden, Wolfville Historical Society
 6:   Beth Keech, Grand Pre Heritage Society
 7:   Joe Kinsman, Executive Assistant to the Hon. David Morse, MLA

Looking westward

Photographed on 9 June 2005

Looking southward

Photographed on 9 June 2005

The bronze plaque has been removed.

Photographed on 25 July 2005

A new bronze plaque has been installed.

Photographed on 28 July 2005

The new bronze plaque.

Photographed on 28 July 2005

A detail of the new bronze plaque.

Photographed on 28 July 2005

Photographed on 28 July 2005

Photographed on 21 May 2003

Photographed on 21 November 2002

Photographed on 21 May 2003

Cape Blomidon in the background

Photographed on 21 May 2003

The original plaque, 1960 to July 2005

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was one of the foremost
political thinkers of 18th century England.
Photographed on 21 November 2002
Plaque date: 1960

In the distance we see the Windsor & Hantsport Railway bridge
over the Gaspereau River.
Photographed on 21 November 2002

Thanks to Mr. Garnet Clarke.

Map showing the location of the Planters monument
Horton Landing, Kings County, Nova Scotia

Roads are shown as they were in 1956. Except for Highway 101, the
layout of the roads in 2006 has not changed much from that shown here.

The location of the Planters monument
superimposed on a 1749 French map of Minas Basin

Map source: Northeast Archaeological Research
http://www.northeastarch.com/minas_environs.html

The tree marks the location of an old wharf

Photographed on 21 May 2003

The remains of the old wharf near the Planters Monument

Photographed on 21 May 2003, about an hour before high tide

Photographed on 21 May 2003, about an hour before high tide

The remains of the old wharf near the Planters Monument

Photographed on 9 June 2005, at low tide looking upstream (southeasterly)

Photographed on 9 June 2005, at low tide looking downstream (northeasterly)

Glimpses of the Past

The wise policy of the government of Nova Scotia, which induced New England farmers to settle upon the lands in the peninsula from which the Acadians had been removed, was extended to others who wished to establish themselves in other sections of the province; and grants were soon made to companies and to individuals in different parts of the district which now forms the province of New Brunswick.  Many also went northward and westward towards the Canadian (Quebec) border.  "A perfect fever for emigration from the older towns commenced," as Kidder says, ["Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution" by Frederic Kidder] "and a very few years sufficed to carry civilization over the largest part of Vermont, New Hampshire and much of Maine along and west of the Penobscot."  But the greater part of the emigration came toward Nova Scotia.

The rapidity and extent of this influx of population are almost incredible.  Gov. Lawrence's proclamations had drawn attention to the province; the fall of Quebec, and the Indian treaty of 1760, left no fear of an immediate renewal of the French and Indian wars; there were also, doubtless, greatly exaggerated reports of the fertility of the soil; yet it is impossible to fully account for the migration without supposing a sort of restlessness, such as sometimes seizes upon people en masse, and such as we have seen paralleled only in the early days of the "California fever".  Unlike the gold hunters, however, the New Englanders who came to Nova Scotia came as permanent settlers...

In the provincial building, at Halifax, historical information may be obtained from the legislative library, the Nova Scotia historical library, the record office, and the land office.  The libraries of the legislature and the historical society have the same librarian.  The record office, however, is at present under separate jurisdiction, and its archives contain the manuscript of 1762 and the "general return" of 1767 referred to in my recent article on the New England emigration.  The return compiled from this "General Return of the several Townships in the Province of Nova Scotia, the first day of January 1767," is here repeated in a changed and corrected form:

— Source: Glimpses of the Past: The County of Sunbury
Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, 29 September 1892
— Reference: Glimpses of the Past: Index
Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, 7 January 1892

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First uploaded to the Internet:   2002 November 28
New photographs installed:   2003 December 06
Seven new photographs installed:   2005 June 16
Five new photographs installed:   2007 November 24
Latest update:   2010 May 13