Katherine Bickford

Victoria Beach Lighthouse

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Katherine

Victoria Beach Lighthouse

Victoria Beach Lighthouse

The 9.4 meters tall Victoria Beach Lighthouse is located on a parcel of land that thirty meters back from the water and nine meters above the high water mark on a rise overlooking the Digby Gut and Battery Harbour.

Constructed in 1901, it is the first lighthouse on the site but the fourth navigational aid erected on the Digby Gut–Annapolis Basin water corridor. The light was put in operation on 08 July 1901.

On 12 February 2015 the lighthouse was designated as a Heritage Lighthouse under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act.

Posted in history, lighthouse, Nova Scotia, winter | Tagged Annapolis Basin, Digby, history, lighthouse, Nova Scotia | Leave a comment

Fort Anne National Historic Site

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Katherine

Fort Anne National Historic Site - Canada’s first administered National Historic Site

Fort Anne National Historic Site – Canada’s first administered National Historic Site

Although Fort Anne was neither the first National Historic Park (Fort Howe was designated three years earlier), nor is it the first site designated under the replacement National Historic Site program, it is nonetheless sometimes referred to as Canada’s “first national historic site” or the “first administered national historic site”, because it was the first site acquired by the federal government for national historic purposes that has subsequently remained under Parks Canada administration.

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The site has been fortified since 1629, when the Scots came to colonize Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and built Charles Fort. The region was reverted to French control in the 1630s and Charles de Menou d’Aulnay began work on the first of four forts on the same site, then known as Port Royal. In 1702, the French began construction of the current Vauban earthwork that is found there today

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The battery overlooking the Annapolis Basin and the banks of the Annapolis River

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Posted in museum, National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, snow, winter | Tagged Annapolis Basin, Annapolis Royal, history, National Historic Site, Nova Scotia, panorama, snow, Winter | Leave a comment

Lequille Hydro Plant

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Katherine

Nova Scotia,Canada,Atlantic Canada,Lequille,power plant,Port Royal,Annapolis Royal,Annapolis Valley

Lequille Hydro Plant

I took a little side trip to see if I could find the hydro generating plant that was downhill of a surge tower that I spotted while heading home from a trip to Annapolis Royal. Sure enough, I wound up at the Lequille Hydro Plant.

The Lequille Hydro System consists of three storage reservoirs and a three-mile canal that diverts water flow to a concrete intake structure. A wood stave penstock attached to the intake structure conveys water to the hydroelectric generating facility, which contains a water wheel connected to a 13 megawatt generator.

Lequille Hydro Plant

The Lequille powerhouse was widely celebrated when it first opened in 1968 as it was constructed close to the site of the first water-powered flour mill north of Mexico.

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