Peggy's Cove is a small rural community located on the east shore of St. Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia 's Halifax Regional Authority, Canada, which is the site of Peggy's Point Lighthouse (established 1868).
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| Peggy's Cove Nova Scotia Canada |
Geography
Peggy's Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of downtown Halifax and includes one of the many small fishing communities that line the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula.
The community is named after the bay of the same name, which also shares a name with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the bay. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.
The first recorded name for the bay was Eastern Point Harbor or Peggs Harbor in 1766. The village is probably named after St. Margaret's Bay (Peggy being a nickname for Margaret), which Samuel de Champlain named after his mother, Marguerite Le Roy. Much folklore has been created to explain the name.
One story suggests that the village may have been named after the wife of one of the first settlers. According to popular legend, the name comes from the sole survivor of a shipwreck at Halibut Rock near the bay. Artist and local resident William deGart said she was a young woman, while others claim she was a little girl, too young to remember her name, and was named Peggy by the family that adopted her. A young shipwreck survivor married a resident of the bay in 1800 and became known as "Peggy of the bay", attracting visitors from all over the bay who eventually named the village of Peggy Cove after her nickname.
The village was founded in 1811 when the Province of Nova Scotia granted over 800 acres (320 ha) of land to six families of German origin. The settlers relied on fishing as the mainstay of their economy, but also farmed where the soil was fertile. They used the surrounding land for grazing their livestock. In the early 1900s, the population reached a peak of about 300 people. The community maintained a schoolhouse, a church, a general store, a lobster cannery, and boats of all sizes that were located in the bay.
Many artists and photographers flocked to Peggy's Cove. As the roads improved, the number of tourists increased. Today, the population is smaller, but Peggy's Cove remains an active fishing village and a popular tourist destination.
Roads and several houses were badly damaged in Peggy's Bay in 2003 by extensive flooding accompanying Hurricane Juan, which also damaged the bay 's breakwater. The breakwater was washed away by Hurricane Bill in 2009, causing severe damage to the home and gift shop, and washing away one of the bay's characteristic wooden fish sheds.
In January 2021, the federal and provincial governments announced the construction of a $3.1 million accessible observation deck at Peggy's Cove, opening in June 2021.