Did you know at one time there were two government wharfs on the island? Back in the 1940's and 1950's, there was a government wharf at this site on the south side of the island. The ferry would make a weekly trip to this wharf on Friday morning to pick up passengers before heading to Chester, then return in the afternoon to drop them off with their supplies. This service was very convenient for people living on the south side of the island because there were only a handful of vehicles on the island at this time. Any trip to the northern side of the island had to be made on foot or cattle and cart.
The wharf was also used as a dock for fishing boats belonging to the fishermen who lived on this side. During a hurricane, the inside section of the wharf was torn apart and washed ashore, along with a couple of the fishing boats, so the wharf could no longer be used. Over the years, the outer section of the wharf slowly washed away.
What There Is To See
From the park viewing platform you can see on the far left the curving shoreline of Southeast Cove, Slightly left is and in the foreground is Long Reef, then Flat Reef, then Little Tancook and in the background the New Harbour area of mainland Nova Scotia. Along the distant shore, and visible on a clear day, is the tapered white structure of the Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse On the right is East Ironbound Island, locally known as Ironbound.
Wilson / Sellars Property
Lawrence Wilson’s property adjoins the park to the west and had three structures. The first, just the foundation remains, was a cabbage house, a root cellar type building used to store the hard sweet variety of cabbage unique to the island and used to make Tancook’s famous sauerkraut.
Working your way down the hill, towards the shore, there were two more much smaller buildings. Sitting higher on the slope was the ferry wharf passenger shelter. After the destruction of the wharf this white building was relocated. Today it sits along the driveway at 378 Big Tancook Island Road. It is a twin to the passenger shelter that remains in use on the Little Tancook wharf.
The other building, a fish store, sat closer to the shore and was used for the filleting, salting and packing of fish.
We are told that in the days of the active use of the wharf the Wilson property was an open and lovely meadow.
Southeast Cove History
The original Tancook Island Ferry Services were privately owned. These ferries made four stops, Little Tancook and Big Tancook Northwest Cove, as it does today, and Ironbound Island on Saturdays. Ferry service from here at Southeast Cove was on Fridays, making stops in the early morning and then again later in the day.
There was ferry service here at Southeast Cove until 1962 when Hurricane Daisy took out the inner section of the wharf and forced the discontinuation of service here. For years thereafter, islanders tied up their boats to the remaining outer wharf section and rowed out to retrieve them as needed. Today, the remaining nine timber wharf posts only become visible at low tide.
Until 1930 there was a road crossing the head of SE Cove approximately 100 feet from today’s shoreline. The tides, rising oceans and constant erosion has long since erased the road and made it part of the shallow sandy beach at the head of SE Cove. We are told that, to the left of the park, the cove was lined with wharves and between the wharves there were so many boats that you could walk continuously across all of them.
Even into the 1950s the island was divided into two communities, each centred around the NW and SE cove ferry wharves. These communities had their own stores, schools and churches. Traversing the island by foot required crossing private properties and the opening and closing of many gates, so islanders found it easier to travel wharf to wharf by boat.
About This Park
This property, former right-of way (road), to Southeast Cove ferry wharf was owned by the federal government who purchased it from Isaac, Albert and Ruben Mason and Stephen and Isabel Alinard in September 1915. The land was sold by the Government of Canada to the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg for a nominal fee in June of 2012.
The park property is just 25 feet wide and about 130 feet long.