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The Mast Road. When the first settlers came to New Annan in 1812 and shortly thereafter, they found a well defined road running from what is now James Chalmers, about West through to the Mill Brook. It had obviously been used for the transport of the large white pine trees which were then still in demand as masts. And so the road was called the "Mast Road". The tradition which has come down from the New Annan pioneers is that the road was cut and used by the French. It seems, too, there was a clearing on the brow of the hill where the road came to French River. DesBarres and the Waughs early in the settlement of Tatamagouche engaged in the timber trade, chiefly in squared pine timber. John Bell, who before he came to New Annan in 1812, lived for a time with Waugh, and the other early New Annan settlers would be well aware of this trade and their attributing the building and the use of the road to the French could hardly be in error. The road had access to an area which before its being swept by fire was heavily wooded with a species of white pine, which I believe, at least in Nova Scotia, is extinct. It was a tall, straight, majestic tree which towered above its fellows sometimes growing to the height of two hundred feet. I once saw it described as the most valuable timber tree in the world. In the original forests it was very common throughout the lowlands around Tatamagouche, where its partially burnt stumps are yet to be found in abundance. In the Acadian times it was in demand for masts for the French navy. This tradition is therefore probably true. The road itself is yet well defined and in use as a wood road, and is still known as the "Mast Road". Back |
