Baddeck () is a village on Cape Breton Island in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in the centre of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake.
Baddeck is the shire-town of the Municipality of Victoria County, with an elected village commission having limited authority over water, sewer, side streets and some bylaws. The population was 818 in the 2021 Census of Population.
The area was first occupied by Mi'kmaq people and later settled by United Empire Loyalists and Scottish Gaels in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The area prospered in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a service and shipping center for surrounding mining, trapping, fishing, forestry, and farming activities.
Toponymy
The name Baddeck is based upon the Mi'kmaq language place name.
Its original name,
Apatakwitk, has been variously reported as meaning "reversing flow",
"place with island near" (a likely reference to
Kidston Island),
"a portion of food set aside for someone", or "a sultry place".
The French thus called it La Bedeque, while
Canadian Gaelic speakers called it Badaig.
History
French
settled at nearby St. Anns in 1629.
Great Britain settlement came during the 1700s after the territory was ceded by France.
In 1839, a property containing an inn, a tavern, and a post office was built. In 1841, Charles James Campbell opened a store, began a shipbuilding operation, and developed coal mining in the nearby area of Cape Dauphin approximately 35 kilometers away.
In 1851 Victoria County was created from an area split off of Cape Breton County. Baddeck became the shire-town or county seat of the newly formed county: with a jail, court house and municipal offices.
Baddeck rose to fame in 1874, with the publication of the travel memoir Baddeck, And That Sort of Thing.
In 1885 the Alexander Graham Bell family had a vacation in Baddeck.[Bethune, Jocelyn. Historic Baddeck: Images of our past, Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, N.S., 2009, , .] He then built a complex of buildings, including a new laboratory,
Bell is commemorated at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.
Geography
The area sits on rocks from the
Carboniferous Windsor Group. These include
rock salt,
limestone,
potash, and
gypsum, which are easily dissolved by groundwater and creates caves and
sinkholes.
Climate
Baddeck experiences a humid continental climate (Dfb). The highest temperature ever recorded in Baddeck was on 22 August 1935. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 11 February 1883.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Baddeck had a population of 818 living in 368 of its 415 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 826. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Attractions
Baddeck is one of several Cape Breton communities that plays host to the
Celtic Colours festival each fall. The music festival features hundreds of Celtic musicians from Cape Breton and around the world.
In the spring, the village hosts the Cabot Trail Relay Race, a 298 km (185-mile) relay race around the Cabot Trail.
The Cabot Trail, a scenic route, passes through Baddeck.
Historic structures in the town include:
-
Telegraph House hotel, 1861, first came to prominence after it was featured in the 1874 book Baddeck, And That Sort of Thing.
-
Saint Peter's and Saint John's Anglican Church, 1883, wooden Gothic Revival church.
-
Gilbert H. Grosvenor Hall, 1886, Romanesque Revival structure of local red sandstone, originally built as the Baddeck Post Office and Custom House.
-
Victoria County Court House, 1889, Neoclassical wood and granite building.
-
Bras d'Or House, circa 1894, heavily remodelled, now houses apartments and a Chinese restaurant.
-
St. Mark's Masonic Lodge, 1898, built in the style of a church, featuring elaborate architectural and Masonic details, many of which now covered with vinyl siding.
-
Kidston Island Lighthouse, 1912, accessible by ferry in the summer.
Education
Baddeck Academy: pre-primary to grade 12 school serving Baddeck and the surrounding communities.
Services
-
Bras d'Or Yacht Club
-
Bell Bay Golf Club
-
Baddeck (Guneden) Aerodrome
Gallery
Women workers at Dr Alexander Graham Bell's laboratory Beinn Bhreagh.jpg|Women workers at Bell's shipyard
Victoria County Court House 2010.JPG|Victoria County Court House
Telegraph House, Baddeck, Nova Scotia.jpg|Telegraph House
Baddeck Post Office and Customs House.JPG|Old post office and customs house
Alexander and Mabel Bell statue, Baddeck Nova Scotia June 2014.jpeg|Alexander and Mabel Bell statue
External links
