The Nova Scotia counties of Antigonish, Guysborough and Inverness converge at the Canso Causeway: Antigonish on the north mainland side of the Causeway, Guysborough to south mainland side, and Inverness on the Cape Breton side. Each of the respective counties has its own unique historical and cultural settlement patterns.
To determine the final coordinates of the cache, read the historical blurbs carefully and pull out the numbers you feel could make up the coordinates. Use the solution checker and pay attention to the hint.
Inverness (North coordinate)
Forty five years after 1730, Michael MacDonald came to the western shore of Cape Breton Island from Prince Edward Island. A poet and sea captain, he and his relatives had left Scotland a few years earlier. MacDonald encouraged his family and friends to join him in the area now known as Inverness County. They welcomed the opportunity to acquire their own land and to begin farming and fishing. Thus began Scottish settlement on Cape Breton Island. The early immigrants to the territory now comprised within the County of Inverness were drawn, principally from the Scottish, French and Irish. Of these three races the Scots were easily the largest group. In addition to these groups, there came a band of United Empire Loyalists, the majority of whom were Smiths. According to some modern notions, no community of men is normal or complete without the inevitable John Smith. In the County of Inverness this John has been an eminently useful citizen. The Scots who came to our shores were emigrants from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, some of them landing at St. John's Island (now Prince Edward's) some more at Pictou, Nova Scotia, and working their way later on to the Northwestern side of Cape Breton Island. A contingent of these Highlanders containing at least 20 nine people, came to St. John's Island, in the ship Alexander, on or about July 1, 1772. These were located on an estate bought the previous year by Captain John MacDonald, the Laird of Glenaladale and Glenfinnan. Other emigrant ships followed, landing at Pictou and other points, thus giving the Counties of Pictou, Antigonish, and Inverness their original Scottish colonists. The name of Inverness was given to this county on the suggestion of the late Sir William Young, who was a representative in the Assembly at Halifax. Sir William was, himself, a native of Invernessshire, Scotland, and a cultured Scotsman to the backbone. The Youngs were a recognized force in the early formative days of Nova Scotia. Who hath not read or heard of, the rousing, ringing "Letters of Agricola" on the subject of Agriculture in this Province? Sir William held, at different times several eminent posts in the public service, the last of which was the Chief-Justiceship of our Supreme Court. He was greatly beloved by his Scottish constituents here, particularly by the older clergy of whom he loved to speak so kindly in his old age. As it now stands this county runs from the Richmond line at Point Tupper, along the windings of the coast northeastwardly, to Cape St. Lawrence near Cape North. The length of this coast line would be at least; one hundred and thirty miles, the average width of the county about 30 miles.
Antigonish and Guysborough (west coordinate)
"When Bishop Plessis visited Havre Boucher in 1812 in the easterly end of Antigonish county, he said that the settlement there seemed to be of recent origin, and that the place took its name from a Captain Francois Boucher of Quebec, who had been overtaken by the winter of 1759 and had to stay there until spring. According to a local tradition, Captain Boucher returned to the place a year later, married there, and established a family. A legend still current in Havre Boucher relates that, 'there once stood on a prominent western point of the harbour a chapel built of logs, which was served by French missionaries and attended by Indians. The early Acadians, few in number, also took advantage, as the occasion offered, of attending mass at the Chapel.'" The collection of people who would form the original residents were a small group of original Acadian settlers and French settlers from Arichat. Before 1785, John and Paul Bushee were living in the vicinity of the harbour in addition to the Decoast or DeCost family. In 1811 these individuals who previously lived in "Harbour au Bouchee" were given grants of land by the Crown - Philistine, John Baptist and James De Coast, Bernard Benwaugh (Benois) and Paul Bushee, Charles LeBlanc and John Baptist Melon and George Minette. On December 1, 1858, Havre Boucher became a separate parish with Father Hugh MacDonald serving as the first pastor. On June 30, 18 sixty one Bishop MacIntyre of Charlottetown laid the cornerstone of the new Church at Havre Boucher. St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church was constructed in 1916 and a convent (Immaculate Conception) of the Sisters of Charity built in 1890. There were 30 families when Bishop Plessis of Quebec paid his official visit in 181 two. The harbour was important for fishing and by 1818 some small fishing vessels were being built by people from Arichat. These vessels would ultimately find their way into the local harbour. Some lobster and scallop harvesting was also done at this time. The village population grew rapidly through the years from 1812-18 five 8 as more than 10 zero families were present when a parish was created to serve the area in 1858.
Guysborough County:
English presence at the current community of Guysborough, started by the 1760’s with the arrival of a group of families from Massachuetts. Captain Joseph Hadley received a grant of land at Chedabucto for his role in the Seige of Louisburg. Others who came from New England including the Callahans, Cooks, Godfreys, Hortons, Ingersols, Pearts, and Tobys settled on a piece of land at the head of Chedabucto Bay bordered on one side by Cook's Cove and on the other by Ingersol's Cove. To this settlement they gave the name Milford and to the harbour just inside Hadley's beach the name Milford Haven was given. Today it is known as Guysborough Harbour but the river flowing from the Intervale is still called the Milford Haven River. The largest group of settlers came at the end of the American Revolution. Lands were granted to soldiers of disbanded English regiments and to settlers from former American colonies who had remained loyal to the British crown. These Loyalists both black and white are the ancestors of many of the residents in the county today. These groups included The Duke of Cumberland's Regiment, The Associated Departments of the Army and Navy, The 60th Regiment, The Hallowell Grant Settlers, and The St. Augustine Loyalists. On the west side of Milford Haven a town was laid out by the surveyors and many of the Loyalists were given a town lot and a country lot. The name Guysborough was given to this settlement in honour of Sir Guy Carleton, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America and the governor general of Canada during the 1 seven 80's. The Black Loyalists arrived with the Associated Departments of Army and Navy on June 2 one, 1784. Some were servants of the white Loyalists and some were Free Blacks holding certificates. However, free or not the Black Loyalist was at the bottom of the pecking order for the British land and supplies and many perished during the first winters in their promised land. Despite the unfair distribution system, poor land, few tools, no guns and scant wages, the Black Community at Guysborough rebounded from around 200 souls in 1786 to over 900 in 1872. These numbers populated settlements in Sunnyville, Birch Town, Cook's Cove, Canso, Country Harbour, Old Guysborough Road, Upper Big Tracadie, Rear Monestary, and along the Tracadie River.