Backyard History

Is it a ghost haunting the woods or something else?

A car load of four young people -two guys and two girls- were driving home from a dance on a dark and stormy Halloween night in 1930. They were o…

One province defeats a pandemic and in the process influences all of North America, leading to improvements in healthcare all over Canada and the United States as they copy the latest developments in…

Canada decides which side to drive on.

For much of its history half of Canada drove on the opposite side of the road from the other half. Ontario and Quebec drove on the right, while British Columb…

"Oh my god we're saved by a girl," the sailor gasped before passing out.

In 1882 a teenager was celebrated for risking her life heroically rescuing shipwrecked sailors in a cold Autumn storm.

https…

After a life of piracy, a man retreats to the woods to escape justice and hide his treasure.

About an hour southwest of Fredericton is Charlie Lake, named after a mysterious hermit who lived there lo…

The host enters an abandoned spaceport in the Arctic.

An intricate maze of metal corridors connect the massive buildings far up in Canada's Arctic. It was once the centre of one of the world's lead…

One woman's battle against lawmakers led to wins women's rights.

One largely forgotten New Brunswick woman led --and won-- not one but two important battles for women's rights in two separate provi…

A 1961 nuclear attack drill goes awry. 

Air raid sirens rang out from coast to coast, and an eerie voice announced that Canada was under attack: 14 nuclear missiles were inbound. The sombre voice t…

A large stone with a face carved into it has people puzzled about who made it.

In 1863 a recent Scottish immigrant was wandering through the stark and desolate area above Lake Utopia looking for ro…

Amelia Earhart visits Newfoundland and The Maritimes on the way to make history.

Amelia Earhart kept her plans to become the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic a secret. But when she arri…

Said to be home to spirits, pirates’ buried treasure, and a trapped ghost ship..

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-mysterious-isle-haute

Lobster. From pauper to proper. A history.

The North American lobster is now a staple of high-end restaurants, and a cultural icon in the Maritimes and New England, but this was not always the case…

Here’s a question for a hot Summer day: did early Maritimers go to the beach?

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-history-of-going-to-the-beach

The first people to ever walk all the way across Canada were Cape Bretoners who did it because someone bet them they couldn't.

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-first-people-to-walk-across-…

In only two hours massive fire completely destroys bustling Campbellton.

At 2pm on July 11th 1910 Campbellton was a prosperous town of 6000 people on New Brunswick’s North Shore. Two hours later it…

The true story behind the chilling ghost story.

Around Maritime campfires we tell the tale of the Dungarvon Whooper – a macabre ghost story of a cook who was murdered for a bag of money, and who ha…

A grey mist hung over the land which the rain never cleared. Snow fell in June and July. Frost came in August. Crops didn’t grow. The spectre of starvation hung over the Maritimes.

One year Summer ne…