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Inch
Arran Park & Other Parks
Historical
Perspective
The
Name
Scottish
immigrants arriving from the Isle of Arran in Scotland named
the point jutting out in the Bay "Inch Arran" after their
Native Island - "Inch" being the Gaelic term for "Point".
Facing this point is a chain of rocks called "Bon Ami
Rocks" named after Peter Bonamie, a Guernsey native, who obtained
a grant of land that included in it, the "Rocks".
Legend
of the Chaleur Phantom
The
legend of the blazing ship on the Bay of Chaleur is one of
the most famous reported in the Maritimes. Over the years
there have been countless sightings of a three-masted, fully-rigged
schooner ablaze a few miles off the shoreline. Many different
legends have been passed on and embellished from generation
to generation. The legend that is most often retold is that
of a Spanish ship which captured some of the natives and took
them to their country never to be seen again. On the return
voyage of this Spanish ship, the natives took revenge and
burned the ship. All aboard perished and many attest that
it is the ghost of the burning ship that can be seen from
the shores of the Bay of Chaleur.
Other
accounts tell of a pirate ship that had been chased up the
Bay by a man-of–war and after taking fire all aboard perished.
Many
dismiss these theories as either an illusion, a flammable
gas from an underwater seam, or simply a reflection or mirage
in the Bay. Regardless of whether the legend is a phenomenon
or a natural occurrence, it remains the most interesting legend
on the Bay of Chaleur. The phantom ship has been seen for
hundreds of years and as legend would have it, will continue
to sail for hundreds more.
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Inch
Arran Hotel
Picture
by Vetta Faulds
The
Inch Arran Hotel or Inch Arran House opened in 1884 as a result
of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. It contained
142 large rooms, dining facilities with seating capacity over
200, broad verandas nearly one fifth of a mile in length,
11 bathing houses on the beach, pool, billiards and bowling
alleys. Many activities at the hotel included clock golf,
quoits, croquet, fishing and horseback riding.
The wealthy traveled
here to enjoy the scenery, relax on the wide veranda, paddle
or swim in the Bay, play tennis or, with their colleagues,
concoct grand business schemes.
Many famous people
were guests at the Inch Arran Hotel including Canada’s first
Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, as well as Sir Charles
Tupper who was then Premier of Nova Scotia, Lord Stanley,
Sir George Stephen, and other associates. In the early 1920’s,
guests came from Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New York, even
famous writers and journalists such as Kate Simpson Hayes
came to visit the Inch Arran as a peaceful location to work
on her latest book.
Sadly, the hotel
was destroyed by fire in 1921 and was never rebuilt. Its site,
however, still draws tourists, as the town’s Inch Arran Park,
with camping and sport facilities, now occupies the site.
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Inch
Arran Lighthouse
The ‘Bon Ami Point
Range Front’ lighthouse was constructed on Inch Arran Point
in 1870. It was built to guide steamers and other vessels
to safety at night.
Prior to the construction
of the lighthouse, a woman by the name of Marie-Louise (Landry)
Arsenault, the "medicine-woman" whose house was very close
to Inch Arran, placed a bright light in one of her windows
to guide her sons, who were captains of the boats coming into
Dalhousie. Mrs. Arsenault did this for many years before it
was decided that an actual lighthouse would be built nearby.
Under the Federal
Heritage Buildings Policy, the Bon Ami lighthouse became recognized
as a Federal Heritage Building on September 5, 1991. To this
day the lighthouse remains in operation and in clear weather,
can be seen at a distance of 16 miles.
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