New Brunswick
Recent Articles
Inside the Saint John City Market
While visiting Saint John, we stopped at the City Market for lunch. What began as a place to find something to eat also allowed us to participate in a tradition that reaches back to the city’s founding. Saint John’s 1785 royal charter authorized the operation of public markets, and vendors have gathered inside the present […]
Loyalist House
Surrounded by the larger buildings of modern Saint John, Loyalist House appears almost out of place. Its white wooden walls, green shutters, and balanced rows of windows preserve the appearance of an earlier city and one that largely disappeared in the Great Fire of 1877. The story of the house begins with Thomas and Amy […]
Last Alarm Bell Monument
A large bronze bell stands silently in King’s Square as a memorial to Saint John firefighters who died while serving their community. Known as the Last Alarm Bell Monument, it was erected in 1986 to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the Saint John Fire Department. The department was established in 1786, only one year after […]
Fort Howe
From its position high above Saint John, Fort Howe once guarded the entrance to the Saint John River and the harbor below. The location offered British soldiers an expansive view of approaching ships and made the ridge a natural place from which to defend the settlement. The fort was constructed in 1777 during the American […]
Founding of New Brunswick Monument
A tall granite cross in Saint John’s King’s Square marks the political events that created the Province of New Brunswick. Its story begins with the conclusion of the American Revolution, when thousands of people who had remained loyal to the British Crown left the newly independent United States and traveled north. In 1783, approximately 14,000 […]
Charles Gorman Memorial
The figure on this monument is not shown standing triumphantly on a podium. Instead, Charles Gorman is captured at the beginning of a race with his body bent forward, one skate braced behind him, and every muscle prepared for the explosive first stride that made him one of the fastest skaters of his generation. Born […]
Fort Beauséjour
On our travels through the Maritime provinces, we stopped at Fort Beauséjour National Historic Site near Aulac, New Brunswick. Today the landscape is remarkably quiet with broad grassy earthworks overlooking the surrounding countryside with a small stone museum building nearby. Yet this peaceful ridge was once at the center of the struggle between France and […]
Blockhouse National Historic Site
One of the things I have come to appreciate through our travels is that every country chooses certain places to preserve because they tell an important part of its story. In the United States, I rarely pass up an opportunity to visit a National Park or National Historic Site. As Marty and I traveled through […]
Fundy National Park
Our drive through the Bay of Fundy was spectacular. Having visited more than 400 units of the U.S. National Park System, I always look forward to exploring the national parks of other countries. Every nation preserves places that tell its own story, and Canada’s national parks have become some of my favorite destinations. They not […]
Roosevelt Campobello International Park
I have visited Roosevelt Campobello International Park several times during my travels through the Maritime Provinces. I enjoy exploring presidential homes and historic sites, and this one is especially meaningful because it reveals a side of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that few presidential sites can capture. Rather than focusing on the years of power and leadership, Campobello tells the story of Roosevelt […]
