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Nova Scotia's Isle Haute is drenched in history and legend that easily rivals any small island in North America. The island's lighthouse is gone now, but mysteries remains along with important archaeological sites and a notable assortment of wildlife.

Isle Haute (sometimes spelled Ile Haute) is located about ten miles offshore from the small community of Advocate in the Bay of Fundy, about five miles south-southwest of Cape Chignecto.

The island is only about 1.5 miles long and a half-mile wide, but its cliffs loom upwards of 300 feet above the highest tides in the world.

Isle Haute is French for High Island. In a report for the Nova Scotia Museum, historian Dan Conlin has written that the island lies on the Bay of Fundy horizon like an overturned canoe or the capsized hull of a sailing ship. Concerning the pronunciation of the island's name, Conlin says it depends on what part of the Bay of Fundy you come from and is either Eye-la Haut or Eye-la Hot.

Explorer Samuel de Champlain recorded his observations made in 1604: We crossed part of the Bay... and we passed by an island... It is entirely surrounded by great rocks excepting in one place, where there is a slope at the foot of which is a pond of salt water, which lies at the base of a gravel point having the form of a spur. The top of the island is flat, covered with trees, and it has a very good spring...

A flat open area of the island is called Indian Flat, and is said to be named for a Mikmaq woman who died there of starvation in 1755. Isle Haute was a Mikmaq camping area for centuries.

The island now boasts abundant berry bushes, nesting peregrine falcons and seagulls, overgrown deer mice, lush plant life and about 30 species of densely populated spiders. There's even a rare primitive insect called a bristletail, and it's said that the warblers sing in a different language here. With its many natural attractions, Isle Haute is a favorite destination for backpackers and picnickers.

A lighthouse was first proposed for Isle Haute in the 1840s largely because of dangerous Quaco Ledge to the west. Two decades later another proposal was put forth, and the Isle Haute Lighthouse was finally erected in 1878. During the building of the lighthouse a road was constructed from the beach so that supplies could be hauled to the station. The 53-foot wooden tower with an attached dwelling looked much like the still-standing Wood Island Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island. With its light 365 feet above the water, the lighthouse exhibited a white flash every 40 seconds. A hand-operated foghorn was added in 1914.

The keepers cleared and cultivated the land around the lighthouse, and for many years sheep and cattle were kept on the island. Only five men served as keepers of the lighthouse during its 78-year history. Nelson Card was the first, and during his time on the island he built a wharf and a 33-foot schooner. His daughter Ida was married on Isle Haute in 1881. Percy Everett Morris was keeper for the longest period, 37 years beginning in 1904.

The island was often buzzing with activity in summer, but the winters could be brutal and the families at the lighthouse were frequently isolated for long periods. Until the early 20th century, the only way the families communicated with the mainland was by lighting bonfires on the shore. A single fire sent word to the mainland that all was well, two signified illness, three meant a doctor was needed, and four meant there had been a death at the station. According to Dan Conlin, during World War II friendly RCAF pilots would drop newspapers and other items at the lighthouse.

The end for Isle Haute's staffed light station came when the lighthouse and dwelling were destroyed by fire in 1956. An automated solar-powered light on an aluminum tower now serves in place of the old pyramidal wooden lighthouse.

The legends of Isle Haute reach back for centuries and have attracted many people to its shores. The island, like countless others, has been linked to treasure buried by Captain Kidd.

One of the island's most exciting episodes concerns a possible pirate treasure found by a popular historian and treasure hunter from down the coast in New England, Edward Rowe Snow. In one of his many books Snow wrote that pirate Edward (Ned) Low eventually became more fiendish in his captures at sea than any other pirate. Snow wrote that Low's travels eventually took him into the Bay of Fundy, and legend has it that while ashore on Isle Haute he beheaded an unruly crewmember. A handyman named Dave Spicer, who helped out at the lighthouse, claimed to have seen a headless ghost on multiple occasions. Another version of the headless ghost story claims that the island moves once every seven years. If you're on the island at midnight when it moves, a flaming headless ghost can be seen, the story goes.

In 1947 Edward Rowe Snow purchased a mysterious map, but it wasn't until five years later that he put the pieces together and came to believe that he possessed a treasure map of Isle Haute drawn by pirate Ned Low himself, or possibly one of his subordinates. The map was examined by experts, said Snow, and was found to be drawn on 17th century paper.

In June 1952, armed with his map and metal detector, Snow set out for Isle Haute and made arrangements to stay at the lighthouse with Keeper John Melvin Fullerton, his wife Margaret and their teenage son Donald. Snow wrote of his approach to Isle Haute in his book True Tales of Pirates and Their Gold. Almost nothing can equal the thrill of sailing out to sea on the way to a romantic island which one has never visited. When this thrill was combined with the knowledge that pirates had buried treasure on the island to which we were sailing, my excitement knew no bounds.
Keeper Fullerton told Snow that many others had also looked for treasure on the island. Soon after he arrived, Snow's metal detector picked up a strong reading at the edge of a previously dug pit. By himself as the sun was setting, Snow dug with a pick for 20 minutes when he suddenly uncovered the ribs of a human skeleton.

On my next swing with the pick, he wrote, the sharp point caught on something in the ground. The earth tore away and I saw it was a human skull which rolled across my feet! Completely losing my nerve, I scrambled out of the pit, grabbed the lantern and started walking rapidly toward the lighthouse far away on the top of the island cliff.
The next morning, in daylight with Keeper Fullerton and his son close by, Snow returned to finish his digging. He found several coins in the area around the skeleton. The Spanish and Portuguese coins were well over 200 years old.
Before returning to Massachusetts, Snow was interviewed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. When it was determined that part of his modest treasure find was gold, the coins had to be left in the efficient care of the Bank of Nova Scotia. A short time later Snow was able to obtain a license to export the coins. Life Magazine ran a feature on the Isle Haute Red Taped Pirate Gold on July 21, 1952, bringing national attention to the fascinating island.

Snow believed that the bulk of Low's treasure might have been found long before he reached Isle Haute's shores. The days of unauthorized visitors digging holes on the island are over, with good reason.

Searching for treasure anywhere in Nova Scotia now requires a license under the Treasure Trove Act, and violators can face heavy fines. And visiting Isle Haute at all requires the permission of the Canadian Coast Guard. According to Dan Conlin, The spot most favored by Snow and other treasure hunters... also happens to be one of the more important archeological sites on the island of very old habitation by native peoples... Isle Haute is a very special island both for ecological and archaeological reasons. This is obviously an island blessed with treasures worth much more than mere coins.

The mysteries of Isle Haute explained
From tool making and Champlain, to lighthouses and scientific research

By Anne Ottow

For The Spectator

More than 150 dinner guests turned out September 15 at the Port George Recreation Hall to support the Mount Hanley One-room Schoolhouse Museum, and to enjoy a turkey dinner before hearing about that mysterious, isolated island that stands out in the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy.

Isle Haute was the topic and Dan Conlin, curator of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, made everyone amazed at the wealth of knowledge he passed on to the many who see it often but know very little about it. Twenty miles from Port George and closest to Advocate Harbour on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay, the island has several pronuciations, but the French name High Island was given to it by Samuel de Champlain in 1604. He explored its 320-foot-high basalt cliffs that run a mile and a half long and have only one place where a landing can be made followed by a trek up the spruce-clad slope to the top of the island.

At the landing site a small lake with no wave action, and a spring for clean water, make for an ideal camping spot which has been used for centuries by visitors. The earliest, native predecessors of the Mi'Kmaq, going back as far as 9,000 years, used the island as a tool-making site, bringing their stone materials from both sides of the Bay, from Cape Split, Cap d'Or, and Economy Mountain. They left huge amounts of unfinished or broken axe and arrow heads and other essential remains of their labour. Their name for the island translates as 'where wild potatoes grow,' and according to Conlin, they still grow their. The site also has evidence of copper. The places where their wigwams were set up have also been found.

(Subhead)Europeans arrive

As soon as Europeans began to land on the island however, all traces of native use are abandoned. A long sand spit at the landing site is evident at low tide only. It is a most dangerous place to be anywhere other than at the landing site when the tide comes in, Conlin warned, for there is no way to escape or to seek refuge on the spit or up the steep basalt cliffs that resulted from volcanic eruptions in the Jurassic period. One man was killed after falling from a tree when hunting for bird eggs. Loose soil at the top of the cliffs makes it easy to lose footing and fall to your death.

Vegetation on the island is different than on the mainland because there are no wild animals larger than a mouse. Trees and bushes don't get eaten. They grow densely, with many huge alders competing with the trees. The deer mice are much larger than those living where there is competition, and Conlin says they are not at all wary of humans. On top of the island is one very small pond which is crowded with hundreds of frogs, since that is the only place they can find fresh water. There are two species, thought to have been brought over by settlers and they are highly competitive for the space.

When settlers arrived, they did bring animals and for many years there were cattle, sheep, horses, as well as foxes, kept at a fox ranch on the west end of the island. The soil is fertile but shallow, so fences must be made without the use of fence posts dug in. Around the island are big colonies of grey and harbour seals.

(Subhead)Lighthouse built

As the Bay shore became settled by Europeans, and ship traffic increased dramatically before roads and railroads were built, ship safety demanded a lighthouse on Isle Haute. A 1777 engraving shows the island with many sailing boats and ships around, evidence that water travel was intense. The four-storey structure, with an attached house, was built in 1878, along with a shed for the storage of oil barrels to fuel the rotating light. All this was hauled up the steep road by horses that furnished the only transportation for the several families that lived on the island until the 1950s. They exported hay, sheep and cattle from the island farms, while pickled herring were also sold ashore. Aerial photos from the 1930s show much of the top of the island cleared for agricultural use.

One early recorded ship that was lost was a 1786 excursion sloop from Port George that got wrecked when huge rip tides thrust a long into the ship and it was washed ashore. Luckily the eight people aboard were able to scramble ashore and they spent the next five days stranded. Finally they were rescued when people on the mainland saw their signal fires. Some 20 shipwrecks have been recorded, but others could have occurred. In those days a series of fires were used to send messages to the mainland. One fire meant 'all's well;' two meant someone was ill; three signalled a need for help; and four fires recorded a death.

(Subhead)Popular place

It's amazing today to hear of the many visitors to the island in days gone by. It was a popular place for picnics and wedding parties. Church groups, school bands, lodges, and other organizations loved to go there despite the complications of weather, tidal timing, and organizing in the days before telephone and electricity.

A seven-minute, black and white film from 1937 shows a visit by American tourists who came aboard 'The Lucky Lady.' It shows them climbing fences, swimming in the pond, and picnicking on the shore. In all, thousands of people have visited over the years. As with Oak Island, Isle Haute had its share of treasure hunters, and ghost, and pirate stories too. There are many stories about buried treasure and people digging holes and seeking it. In fact that preoccupation did a lot of damage to the remaining archeological sites. This was still going on in the 1950s.

During the Second World War, aircrews from Greenwood used Isle Haute as a training site. They would throw down items useful to the island people and were sent fish as payback.

Then in 1956, fire struck the lighthouse. Starting in the kitchen, the flames spread, and when the shed where the oil barrels were stored caught fire, it was beyond saving. The entire site was leveled. The Coast Guard came to rescue those who remained living on the island. The animals were sold off and a pre-fab automatic lighthouse replaced the old system. No one remained to live on the island. Now operated by the Coast Guard out of Saint John, the island faces new challenges.

(Subhead)Scientific research

In 1996, a huge scientific expedition brought experts from many fields to access the island and establish priorities. The Coast Guard no longer wanted to claim the whole island, only the lighthouse site and a helicopter landing site. However, many people are afraid to have this spot exploited and ruined. It is the home of rare species, including snails and spiders, along with peregrine falcons, and the famous mice 'bold but dumb,' which have been shown to not reproduce when taken from the island.

The Canadian Wildlife Service has an interest in preserving Isle Haute as it is, and there is still much research to carry out.

Currently some visitors are still able to go to the island, but it has become very difficult because of safety issues and today's insurance situation. Very few fishermen or others with capable boats to make the trip want to risk involvement or the trouble needed to follow insurance guidelines to take out the general public. Today maybe 300 people a year are able to visit, and many of those are doing research. Even this might be cut back as various government interests are changed. At the moment we must wait and see, and look at the magic island from a distance.

Piczo