Victoria County Heritage/Archives Newsletter - October, 2005

October is nearly at an end which is evident as today is Hallowe’en. It would be nice to report that a lot of field work was carried out during October, however, the inclement weather which prevailed for most of the month, was a deterrent in limiting the amount of field work. Two successful trips were undertaken, and now the paper work and research are being completed on the buildings which were identified and photographed.

The Heritage and Archives Clerk attended the fall meeting of the general membership of the Iona Connection. This meeting was held on Saturday, 22nd October in Orangedale in the new building which has recently been built on the site of the Orangedale Train Museum. There was a very good turn out for this meeting with in excess of thirty people representing archives and museums around the island. Invited guests included Susan Charles of the Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage, Paul Collins with the SDI program from the Province and Molly Titus of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.

The Iona Connection submitted an application to the SDI program for funding to create a new website for the Iona Connection which would incorporate the new heritage locator map which has become extremely popular both with visitors and locals alike. Word has just been received this morning that our application to the Strategic Development Initiatives for funding has been approved so, the Iona Connection will be starting the process of redesigning its website.

The number of visitors to the archives has been steady all month – seventeen people signed the guest book. One of these visitors was Joan Milliken Finn from Maine who is the great, granddaughter of Charles J. Campbell – one of Baddeck’s earliest residents who was a prominent businessman and politician. Funnily enough, the newspaper article for the county’s heritage buildings in September was written about Mr. Campbell’s dwelling, “Duntulmn Cottage”. She was very pleased with all the information which was available in the archives concerning C.J. Campbell, and was delighted to take away a copy of the article about his house.

This month’s newspaper article for the Victoria Standard was written about the first Baddeck Academy built in the early 1850’s shortly after Victoria County was created. There has been quite a bit of interest generated since the article appeared in the paper last week. I have been asked by one of the elementary teachers to make a presentation to her class concerning the school as well as conducting a walking tour of the main street in the near future.

That is the news from the Heritage and Archives Dept. for October. Here is hoping that November’s weather will be a bit drier and sunnier. Happy Hallowe’en everyone!! Remember to watch out for the November newsletter.