pop (2000e) 200 500; area 10 295 km²/3974 sq mi. Island in Nova Scotia, Canada; separated from mainland by the Strait of Canso; almost bisected by Bras d'Or Lake (arm of the sea); chief towns, Sydney, Glace Bay, Louisburg; Cape Breton Highlands National Park in NW (1936); many people of Scottish descent, with Gaelic still spoken; dairy farming, fishing, timber, coal mining, gypsum, tourism; originally French (Ile Royale), taken by British, 1758; joined to Nova Scotia, 1820.
Cape Breton Island (French: île du Cap-Breton, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Cheap Breatuinn, Míkmaq: Únamakika, simply: Cape Breton) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the European word "Breton", referring to Brittany.
Cape Breton Island is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, although physically separated from the peninsular Nova Scotian mainland by the Strait of Canso, it is artificially connected to the mainland by the Canso Causeway. The island is located east-northeast of the mainland with its northern and western coasts fronting on the Gulf of St. Lawrence;
The island is divided into four of Nova Scotia's eighteen counties: Cape Breton, Inverness, Richmond, and Victoria. Cape Breton Island has experienced a decline in population of approximately 6.8% since the previous census in 1996. Approximately 72% of the island's population is located in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) which takes in most of Cape Breton County (except for two Native Reserves: Eskasoni 3 and Membertou 28B) and its shoreline along the Atlantic Ocean is termed Industrial Cape Breton, given the history of coal mining and steel manufacturing in this area.
History
Cape Breton Island's first residents were likely Maritime Archaic Indians, ancestors of the Mi'kmaq Nation, who later inhabited the island at the time of European discovery. However, historians are unclear as to whether Cabot first visited Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island. This discovery is commemorated by Cape Breton's Cabot Trail.
On February 8, 1631 Charles I granted Cape Breton Island to Robert Gordon of Lochinvar and his son Robert.
The island saw active settlement by France with the island being included in the colony of Acadia. Britain merged the island with its adjacent colony of Nova Scotia (present day peninsular Nova Scotia and New Brunswick).
Some of the first British-sanctioned settlers to the island following the Seven Years' War were Irish, although upon settlement, they merged with local French communities to form a culture rich in both music and tradition. From 1763 to 1784 the island was administratively part of the colony of Nova Scotia and governed from Halifax.
In 1784, Britain split the colony of Nova Scotia into three separate colonies: New Brunswick, Cape Breton Island, and present-day peninsular Nova Scotia, in addition to the adjacent colonies of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The colony of Cape Breton Island had its capital at Sydney on its namesake harbour fronting on Spanish Bay and the Cabot Strait.
An order forbidding the granting of land in Cape Breton, issued in 1763, was removed in 1784. The British government had intended that the Crown take over the operation of the mines when Cape Breton was made a colony, but this was never done, probably because of the rehabilitation cost of the mines.
In 1820, the colony of Cape Breton Island was merged for the second time with Nova Scotia; This development is one of the factors which led to large-scale industrial development in the Sydney Coal Field of eastern Cape Breton County (see Industrial Cape Breton). By the late 19th century, as a result of the faster shipping, expanding fishery and industrialization of the island, exchanges of people between the island of Newfoundland and Cape Breton increased beginning a cultural exchange that continues to this day.
During the first half of the 19th century, Cape Breton Island experienced an influx of Highland Scots numbering approximately 50,000; Today the descendants of the Highland Scots dominate Cape Breton Island's culture, particularly in rural communities.
Tourism promotions beginning in the 1950s recognized the importance of the Scottish culture to the province (although it wasn't dominant throughout Nova Scotia), and the provincial government started encouraging the use of Gaelic once again.
The turn of the 20th century saw Cape Breton Island at the forefront of scientific achievement with the now-famous activities launched by inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Guglielmo Marconi.
Marconi's contributions to Cape Breton Island were somewhat less than Bell's as he merely used the island's geography to his advantage in transmitting the first trans-Atlantic radio message from a station constructed at Table Head in Glace Bay to a receiving station at Poldhu in Cornwall, England.
Geography
The island measures 10,311 km² in area (3,981 square miles), making it the 75th largest island in the world and Canada's 18th largest island. Cape Breton Island is composed mainly of rocky shores, rolling farmland, glacial valleys, barren headlands, mountains, woods and plateaus.
The northern portion of Cape Breton is dominated by the Cape Breton Highlands, commonly called the Highlands, an extension of the Appalachian mountain chain. In 1936 the federal government established the Cape Breton Highlands National Park covering 950 km² across the northern third of the Highlands.
Cape Breton Highlands - Nova Scotia Museum website Cape Breton Highlands - Parks Canada websiteCape Breton's hydrological features include the Bras d'Or Lake system, a salt-water fjord at the heart of the island and freshwater features including Lake Ainslie, the Margaree River system, and the Mira River. Cape Breton Island is divided into four counties: Cape Breton, Inverness, Richmond, and Victoria.
Cape Breton Island is now joined to the mainland by the Canso Causeway, completed in 1955, enabling direct road and rail traffic to and from the island, but requiring marine traffic to pass through the Canso Canal at the eastern end of the causeway.
Demographics
The five main cultures are Scottish, Mi'kmaq, Acadian, Irish, and English, with respective languages Scottish Gaelic, Míkmaq, French,and English.
Later migrations of black Loyalists, Italians, and Eastern Europeans enriched the eastern part of the island around Industrial Cape Breton. Cape Breton has been seeing a population exodus in recent years.
According to the Census of Canada, the population of Cape Breton Island in 2001 was 147,454, a -6.8% decline from 158,260 in 1996.
Racial/Ethnic Composition
95.0% Caucasian 3.6% Mi'kmaq (Canadian First Nation) 0.7% Black 0.1% ArabReligious Groups
Statistics Canada in 2001 reported a "religion" total of 107,880 for Cape Breton, including 3,915 with "no religious affiliation." Major categories included:
Roman Catholic: 69,820 Protestant: 32,575 (including 13,790 United Church and 10,170 Anglican) Orthodox: 395 Jewish: 235 Muslim: 135Synagogues in Sydney and Glace bay serve the Island's small Jewish community while Muslims hold Friday prayers at Cape Breton University. Buddhists are a tiny minority (70 in 2001, according to Statistics Canada), although Cape Breton's Pleasant Bay has been home to Gampo Abbey since 1984.
Economy
Cape Breton Island has two major coal deposits: the Sydney Coal Field in the southeastern part of the island along the Atlantic Ocean drove the Industrial Cape Breton economy throughout the 19th and 20th centuries - until after World War II its industries were the largest private employers in Canada; the Inverness Coal Field in the western part of the island along the Gulf of St. Lawrence is signficantly smaller but hosted several mines.
Sydney on the east coast of the island has traditionally been the main port, with various facilities in a large sheltered natural harbour. It is also the Island's largest commercial center and home to the Island's daily newspaper, the Cape Breton Post, as well as its only television studio and several radio stations. The Marine Atlantic terminal at North Sydney is where some of Canada's largest ferries have daily departures year-round to Channel–Port aux Basques and seasonally to Argentia on the island of Newfoundland.
Glace Bay is the second largest community in population and was the island's main coal mining center until its last mine ceased operation in the 1980s. The St. Peters Canal is no longer used by commercial shipping on Cape Breton Island but is an important waterway for recreational vessels.
The primary east-west road on the island is Nova Scotia Highway 105, the Trans-Canada Highway, although the Nova Scotia Highway 104 expressway is scheduled to be extended from Port Hawkesbury along the south side of Bras d'Or Lake to the Sydney area and will likely see the Trans-Canada designation switched to this route when completed. Nova Scotia Highway 125 is an important arterial route around Sydney Harbour in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Railway connections between the port of Sydney to Canadian National Railway in Truro are maintained by the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.
The industrial Cape Breton area faced several challenges with the closure of the Cape Breton Development Corporation's (DEVCO) coal mines and the Sydney Steel Corporation's (SYSCO) steel mill.
While the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is in transition from an industrial to a service-based economy, the rest of Cape Breton Island outside of the industrial area surrounding Sydney has been more stable, with a mixture of fishing, forestry, small-scale agriculture, and tourism. The scenery of the island is rivalled in northeastern North America only by Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island tourism marketing places a heavy emphasis on its Scottish Gaelic heritage through events such as the Celtic Colours Festival, held each October, as well as promotions through the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts.
The Cabot Trail is a scenic road circuit around and over the Cape Breton Highlands with spectacular coastal vistas; The Condé Nast travel guide has rated Cape Breton Island as one of the best island destinations in the world.
Traditional Music
Cape Breton is well known for its fiddle music, which was brought to North America by Scottish immigrants during the Highland Clearances. The traditional style has been well preserved in Cape Breton, and ceilidhs have become a popular attraction for summer tourists. Performers who have received significant recognition outside of Cape Breton include Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, The Rankin Family and Buddy MacMaster.
The Men of the Deeps are a male choral group of current and former miners from the industrial Cape Breton area.
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