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Liverpool, Nova Scotia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liverpool (2001 pop.: 3,295) is a Canadian community and former town located along Nova Scotia's South Shore. It is located in the Region of Queens Municipality.
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The town is located on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Mersey River. Its coordinates are .
Liverpool's harbour was long a seasonal camp of Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq and was also the site of a small Acadian settlement known as Lingley. Following the expulsion of the Acadians, Liverpool was founded by New England Planters as a fishing port in 1759, named after Liverpool in England—which also lies on the Mersey River. The town was strengthened after the American Revolutionary War by additional arrivals from the Loyalist refugees. During the American Revolution and the War of 1812, Liverpool was used by privateers who preyed on American shipping off Nova Scotia's and New England's coasts. The port was notable for such vessels as The Rover (privateering ship) and the schooner Liverpool Packet as well as mariners such as Joseph Barss and merchants such as Enos Collins. An eye-witness account of this period can be found in the published diaries of Simeon Perkins, an important merchant in early Liverpool.
During the nineteenth century, the town became a major seaport as the fishing and ship building industries grew. The town also became a leading exporter of timber which was floated down the Mersey River (or the Rivière Rossignol for Acadians) from the inland forests. For a time after the War of 1812, Liverpool was second only to Halifax as the major port in the province, but was later eclipsed by ports in the north shore of the province such as Pictou and New Glasgow.
The introduction of steam shipping and the collapse of the local Bank of Liverpool in 1871 severely hurt the town's economy and it went into a slow decline. Its fortunes were temporarily revived in the 1920s when it became a centre for rum-runners exporting alcohol to the United States during prohibition.
Tourism has become increasingly important to Liverpool and the South Shore in recent decades, particularly as tourists travel the Lighthouse Route scenic drive between the ferry port at Yarmouth to Halifax. Liverpool has also become a cottaging destination during the summer months for residents of Halifax.
Liverpool's largest employer is a Bowater Paper Company pulp mill in nearby Brooklyn. The Bowater-Mersey mill was established in 1929 and produces 253,000 metric tons of newsprint per year. It is located on the Mersey River estuary and is a joint partnership between Bowater Incorporated and The Washington Post. The mill's port accommodates large ocean freightliners year-round.
In 1996, Liverpool disincorporated as a town and merged with the Municipality of the County of Queens to form the Queens Regional Municipality.
A History of Queens County (1873) James F. More
