Canada – Nova Scotia – Peggy’s Cove

2019 MAY 19 —–

I hit the road early. It was a nice day and not raining. The road to Peggy’s Cove was VERY winding! It hugged the zigzag coastline. I’m convinced that the original settlers wanted the water no more than 50′ away and the modern highway simply paved over the original road. There was either curve after curve or hilly straight sections that had signs saying “Blind Crest” or “Hidden Driveway” The posted speed was between 40 – 80 km/hr. I had to keep my eyes focused on the road at all times. The odd glance that I dared to take off the road did prove to have a very pretty landscape. There were lots of houses along the road and along the tiny coves. Huge rocks braced up against the shoreline and there were even some beautiful piers made out of the huge stones.

I arrived in Peggy’s Cove right at 9:00 AM, just in time for the brand new information center’s first day being open. They gave some quick directions to the famous lighthouse. “Go up this street until you get to the lighthouse. There is only one street in Peggy’s Cove – one way in and one way out.” Simple enough!

A brief geology lesson: Millions of years ago, two landmasses collided causing the crusts to melt and form magma. Crystallization of the magma created granite. Millions of years of slow uplift and erosion exposed the granite. Tens of thousands of years ago, much of North America was covered with 1-3 kilometres of ice (the ice age). As the ice moved, it would thaw and freeze. The melted water would find its way into the granite cracks. When it froze it would bust the granite apart. Some large boulders got chipped out and would grate against the remaining granite, causing the deep striations (scratch marks) as well as polishing the rest. The smooth sloping side of the granite shows the direction the glacier came from. The opposite side is jagged and steep. About 15-20,000 years ago the ice receded, leaving the large boulders scattered about. This is also how this part of the world has so many coves and inlets. The entire town was built on and around giant blocks and slabs of granite.

Directly across the street from the information centre was the William E deGrath Fisherman’s memorial. deGrath was a Finnish-born painter and sculptor who spent most of his life in Peggy’s Cove. In 1977, at the age of 70, he set out to “release the figures sleeping in the rock for over 10 million years.” He began a ten-year project to sculpt a “lasting monument to Nova Scotia fishermen” on a 30 metre (100 foot) granite outcropping behind his home. The work depicts 32 fishermen and their wives and children enveloped by the wings o the guardian angel St. Elmo. It also features the image of legendary Peggy. Legend has it that she was the sole survivor of an 18th-century shipwreck. She married a man in the small fishing village where she was rescued and was known as “Peggy of the Cove.” Another theory as to the name of Peggy’s Cove is that Samuel de Champlain named the bay after his mother Marguerite (Peggy being the nickname for Margaret). There was a deGrath gallery, but it was closed for the season.

The Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse may be one of the most iconic lighthouses in the world and definitely the most photographed in Canada, but it is still located within a working fishing village. There were signs reminding visitors to respect the privacy of homes and property. First settled in 1811 because the sheltered cove offered close proximity to the large fish population in St. Margaret’s Bay, the original 6 families grew to be a village. The population peaked at 300. In an effort to preserve the unique beauty of the area, Peggy’s Cove was declared a preservation area. In 1962 the Peggy’s Cove Commission Act restricted development within Peggy’s Cove and prohibited development in surrounding lands. The population has diminished to only 30 year-round residents. I question whether fishing or tourism keeps the village alive.

I carried on the lighthouse. The sheer magnitude of the granite rocks took my breath away. I felt like Gulliver in Lilliput. It was like walking on a massive lumpy birthday cake with candy sprinklings of boulders and the lighthouse was the candle. It was bleak but beautiful at the same time. There is always something about the power of nature that makes me feel small and humble. There were a couple of groomed footpaths, but mostly people were walking across the huge spans, over and around the boulders and cracks. There were signs cautioning people to explore at their own risk and to stay off the black (wet) rocks near the water. Despite the warnings, several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning. I saw some people far off sitting on the edge of a rock looking out into the ocean. I joined them at a discrete distance and felt the solitude and precarious tranquility of earning a living from the sea. Between 1583 and 1999, it is estimated that there are 25,000 shipwrecks around the Nova Scotia coastline.

The first lighthouse was built in 1868. This one was built n 1914 and despite being built of reinforced concrete, it retains the eight-sided shape of earlier generations of wooden light towers. It is 15 metres high (49 feet). The lighthouse was automated in1958 and was declared surplus in 2010. Surplus lighthouses are those the Canadian Coast Guard officials determined “could be replaced with simpler structures whose operation and maintenance would be more cost-effective.”  I assume that the municipality took control of the lighthouse since they had until May of 2012 to petition to have it protected under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. During the summer months, the lower level served as the village post office. Each piece of mail received a special cancellation mark in the shape of a lighthouse. However Canada Post closed the lighthouse post office in November 2009 citing mold growth as a safety hazard. I went up to the lighthouse, had my picture taken in front of it in exchange for me taking their picture. (Side note: I have given up on giving people my camera to take a picture of me. They don’t know how to use one. But everyone is familiar with a cell phone.)

On the walk back to my rental car, I stopped at Amos Pewter. They design, create and sell pewter gifts and keepsakes. As a former engraver, I always loved working with pewter. I chatted with the workers a bit and then bought a pewter sand dollar as a souvenir. They offered to engrave it for me, but then remembered that I could do it myself.

I took a few pictures of the town and one of Mr. & Mrs. Shorty. Shorty is a 5-foot 2-inch wooden carving of a fisherman who stands by a lobster roll food truck. He is well photographed friendly ambassador of Peggy’s Cove. A group of Dalhousie University students kidnapped him earlier this spring, but another group of students rescued and returned him. Mrs. Shorty was carved to wave good-bye to tourists and to keep an eye on her husband!

I departed Peggy’s Cove and was making my way to Lunenburg, but I made a detour to see the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial. On 2 September 1998, an international passenger flight left JFK International Airport in New York City on its way to Geneva, Switzerland. A fire broke and caused the plane to crash into the ocean 8 km (5 miles) from Peggy’s Cove and Bayswater shore. Privately owned fishing boats were the first responders to approach the crash site. Unfortunately, all 229 passengers and crew were dead. The memorial site is carved right out of the existing landscape. Two large circular stones with flattened surfaces face each other. One stone is a memorial to the dead, the other is thanks to the community for their help.