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Site banner image courtesy of Moser's Photogragy.
Discover Sheet Harbour... You will be glad you did
Drop into our Visitor Centre
 The MacPhee House Museum in Sheet Harbour is situated next to the Water Falls and is a Visitor Information Centre and a museum of Sheet Harbour History. The history of the Sheet Harbour Area can be found in and outside the MacPhee Building. Behind MacPhee House is a lovely walking path that takes you past what is left of the old mill that once resided there.
Tidal Chart for Sheet Harbour
Weather Link for Sheet Harbour
Seacoast Trail Arts Association
Be sure and review our activities & events for Sheet Harbour, Taylor Head Provincial Park and Regional Communities on the Eastern Shore.
History
 The settlement began in 1784 by Loyalist refugees and British veterans of the American Revolution and became a prosperous centre for the lumber industry.
Sheet Harbour was named "Port North" on the Royal Navy Chart that was published in 1778. It was decided that "Port North" was not descriptive enough so its name was changed to Sheet Harbour because of a white, flat rock that looks like a sheet (named Sheet Rock). Sheet Rock can be found at the entrance of the harbour. Sheet Harbour for about two decades was known as Cambell Town, this name fell into disuse and became known as Sheet Harbour.
Canadian schooner Herbert L. Rawding anchored at the East River wharf, Sheet Harbour.
Lumber brought prosperity to Sheet Harbour, which was home to Canadas first sulphite mill. Built in 1885, the mill is commemorated with a monument at the Eastern Shore Wildlife Clubhouse along the East River. The importance of the lumber industry to the community is also reflected in the displays at the MacPhee House Community Museum, an informative glimpse of life in rural Nova Scotia in the days before plastic.
Our rugged coastline is dotted with islands and small coves along with rivers and lakes ideal for canoeing and kayaking.
Explore the Eastern Shore on your Way to Sheet Harbour
 Sheet Harbour is
ideally positioned to discover much of Nova Scotia in easy day
trips. Within less then one hours drive you can explore.....
Nearby is Taylor Head
Provincial Park & Beach located just near Spry Harbour offering
several small picnic areas, boardwalks to a beautiful white-sand beach
and several hiking trails.
On the way to Sheet Harbour in Musquodoboit Harbour you’ll find the Musquodoboit Railway Museum.
Housed in a beautifully restored, Canadian National railway station
built in 1918, this museum illustrates the important role the railroad
played in the growth of our region, province and our country. Many of
the exhibits are geared for children, like the caboose and snowplow
car, but lifelong aficionados will find many informative artifacts
here, including maps, posters, tickets, schedules and photos. Part of
the old rail line has been converted into the 14.5 km/8.99mi Musquodoboit Trailway.
This woodland walking and hiking trail takes you along the Musquodoboit
River, past lakes and granite ridges, to Gibraltar Rock, where more
spectacular views await you.
Once you are rested
from your hike, return to Route 7 and follow it all the way to Jeddore
Oyster Pond, where you can explore what life was like for the average
fisherman and his family in the early twentieth century at the Fisherman’s Life Museum.
Guides in period clothes will take you on a tour of the house and stage
informative recreations of a time and quality of life that made an
enormous contribution to our heritage and culture.
 Continuing east along Route 7, you’ll arrive in Lake Charlotte, home to Memory Lane Heritage Village.
This community-owned living heritage museum brilliantly recreates a
rural Nova Scotia community from the 1940s. Almost all of the buildings
in the village — the general store, church, schoolhouse, barn, icehouse
and outhouse — were rescued from around the region, lovingly restored,
and moved to Memory Lane. There’s even a working cookhouse where you
can sit down for a hearty, down-home meal. Or, you can visit the Webber homestead, where classic radio broadcasts and the smell of freshly baked cookies permeate the air.
A nearby side road will take you to Clam Harbour Beach,
one of the most beautiful beaches in Nova Scotia. Its broad, seemingly
endless ribbon of sand is ideal for a seaside stroll — as is the
adjacent hiking trail — and perfectly suited for building sandcastles.
Next, head for Ship Harbour and visit the Mussel Farm,
the largest cultivated mussel farm in North America. If the sight of
all this seafood makes you hungry, continue along Route 7 to Tangier, home of the world-famous J. Willy Krauch & Sons Smokeshop and
its mouthwatering array of wood-smoked fish, like Atlantic Salmon,
mackerel and eel awaits you. Take time to visit the Prince Alfred
Memorial Arch located at Masons Point, built in recognition of the
prince's visit in 1861.
 Route 7 continues along the coastline past Spry Harbour, where you’ll find a road that will take you to Taylor Head Provincial Park.
Considered by many to be among the finest coastal trail systems on
North America’s eastern seaboard, Taylor Head offers both gentle walks
and hardy hikes that encompass the rich diversity of our seacoast
landscapes.
Next you’ll arrive in Sheet Harbour, where you’ll find the MacPhee House Community Museum.
This unique museum illustrates what life was like along the Eastern
Shore in the days before plastic, with a number of interesting
artifacts and curios that will delight, intrigue and challenge young
and old alike.
From Sheet
Harbour, you can go inland along Route 224 to Upper Musquodoboit, and
follow it until you reach Elmsvale. Turn left and make your way to the Moose River Gold Mine.
The mine was the site of a 1936 mining disaster that kept listeners
around the world glued to their radios for updates on the fate of three
trapped men. Two were rescued over the twelve-day ordeal. Today, the Moose River Provincial Park commemorates the site of the rescue, and the Moose River Gold Mine Museum houses many fascinating artifacts of the region’s mining history.
Sheet Harbour is the perfect home base on the Eastern Shore to explore the natural fall splendor that has made Nova
Scotia famous the world over. For the fall traveler, there are almost
as many outdoor choices as in the summer, but with fewer crowds. Rriver
canoeing, kayaking are popular, but for those who just want to spend
a few gentle (and drier) hours communing with nature, the eastern shore
offers a network of walking and hiking and trails.
Bay of Islands Region
From Sheet Harbour to Sherbrooke, the Bay of Islands
is a stretch of unspoiled vistas along the coast. Small fishing
communities dot the highway and everywhere, the forests are ablaze and
reflected in the rivers, lakes and coves. This area is home to many sea
kayak routes and 4 of the province's 30 proposed wilderness areas. Boggy Lake, Alder Grounds, Liscombe River and Big Bog were designated in the 1998 Bill 24. Keep your eye out for the rolling Eastern Shore Drumlins. The tops are covered in red maple and birch. Magnificent.
At Moser River, take a drive up the Wilson's Falls Road toward Kelly Lake. The Kelly Lake region
is closed to bird hunters (although larger game is still unprotected).
You might glimpse deer, moose, bear, fox, coyote and lots of smaller
wildlife... if you're really quiet. Seaward, you'll see hundreds of
small islands. Part of this outcrop scattering includes The Eastern Shore Wildlife Management
area, a group of 70 islands that have been protected since 1976 for
their nesting colonies of seabirds and Grey Seals. The islands, bearing
intriguing names like Pumpkin, Frying Pan and Brokenback are popular
with sea kayakers and sailboat enthusiasts.
St. Mary's River & Sherbrooke
From Sherbrooke
to Antigonish, Highway 7 ambles along the St. Mary's River through one
of the most stunning autumn drives in the whole province. The St.
Mary's is world famous for her salmon This
is an area of rolling farmlands where Dutch dairy and crop farmers
spread their countryside charm over the landscape. On the hillsides,
there are huge stands of hardwood that spread their reflected colours
across the river, a treasure for painters and photographers. The area is also home to Goldenville Goldmine Interpretive Centre
Our Natural History
Valleys and severely concave inlets along Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore have been engulfed by the sea throughout the last few thousand years. Most of the small islands along this shore are drumlins. Cliffs at such places as Wine Harbour and Lawrencetown are cut into the drumlins.
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Glaciers formed the majority of Nova Scotia’s landscape during the last ice age, ending just 12,000 years ago. One of the features left behind by glacier erosion is a roche moutonnée (sheep rock), like the one in Taylor Head Provincial Park and those in the Peggy’s Cove area. A roche moutonnée has one gentle smooth slope and one steeper, more ragged slope. The bedrock at Taylor Head is Cambrian metamorphosed sandstone.
Taylor Head Provincial Park, a natural environment park, occupies a rugged wind-swept peninsula jutting six and a half kilometres (4 miles) into the Atlantic Ocean on Nova Scotia’s picturesque Eastern Shore. The park provides spectacular views and offers 16 kilometres (10 miles) of unspoiled coastline. Discover the majesty of enduring rock versus the tumultuous power of the sea, all just over an hour’s drive from Halifax.
Approximately 900 to 1,000 million years ago what is now Taylor Head rested near the centre of a great supercontinent.As the continent broke apart, new oceans formed along the rifts. The present rocks were formed about 500 million years ago when sand, silt and clay,were deposited in one of these new oceans to a thickness of several kilometres. As more muds and sands were deposited, the increasing pressure squeezed water from underlying sediments, creating small volcano shaped structures.Taylor Head is one of only a few locations in Nova Scotia where sand volcanoes are found. Other special features, called flute marks, appear as ripples in the bedrock and indicate that strong ocean currents once moved large volumes of sediment rapidly across the sea floor. About 400 million years ago, the continents collided, squeezing these massive sediment deposits and folding them into a mountain system that would have rivaled the Alps.Over a few million years, the mountains were eroded to an almost flat surface.Huge boulders known as glacial erratics are the only remaining evidence the retreat of the glaciers.The post-glacial rise in sea levels has also affected Taylor Head.Drowned forests, eroding headlands, and salt marshes and beaches being driven inland are all evidence of a constantly evolving landscape.
Other Travel Related Sites for Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia's Official Tourism Website
Explore Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia Seacoast Vacation Packages
Click here for a map of attractions in the eastern shore area
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