I'll bet most of you have never even heard about this place.  This is strange and unfair as at one time it was one of the major communities in eastern North America and in fact was one of the causes of a war between the UK and the US - a little conflict known as the 1812 War.

Canso, Nova Scotia, is pretty much the most eastern community on mainland Nova Scotia, located about 100 nm up the Eastern Shore from Halifax.  Nowadays it is quite small, a far cry from its heyday back in the late 1700s.  In fact, this community typifies Maritime Coastal Communities throughout the North East.  Fishing was the central source of income and as the fishing changed and was consolidated more and more into the hands of large corporations and fishing fleets, the fortunes of small communities like Canso began to wane.  The final straw came when the largest producer on Canada's east coast decided to consolidate all of their Nova Scotia fish processing in another plant and sold the Canso Plant to other interests.  The new owners ran the plant on a reduced schedule and eventually wound up closing it most of the time and only opening it for occasional peak loads.

As a result, the population has dwindled. 

Unlike many towns in the same predicament, Canso is fighting back.  They are trying a variety of things to attract business and visitors:

The Stan Rodgers Folk Festival http://www.stanfest.com/
This annual event runs from July 2-4 and is an absolute must for anyone who enjoys folk music.  The town opens its doors to visitors:

• the town centre becomes a camp ground,
• individual residents will rent out rooms and rent out space in their yard for you to set up a tent,
• numerous performers come from all over North America and the world to perform

Canso Marina http://www.norex.ca/canso/comm.php
They don't have a website but the contact info is on the site above.  This is a very pleasant little marina, which is part of a campground, with about ten finger piers complete with power and water in about 10' of water.  It also has a handful of heavy moorings.  It is exceptionally well sheltered behind two breakwaters and is a ten-minute walk into town.  The best part is the price.  At our last visit in 2002 the finger piers were $20Cdn a night and the moorings were $9!

Grassy Island http://collections.ic.gc.ca/archaeology/second/history/history.html
This was the major community back in the 1700.  If you take the time to go through the website, you will see how much of an impact that not only Grassy Island, but also the entire region had on the history of both our countries.

There are a number of ways to access Canso from the sea:  from the east off the Canso Shelf, from the Strait of Canso and in through Andrew's Passage.  Any of them are worth the explore.  Any of the government or private cruising guides can give you more detailed information, but I can highly recommend a little book called Cruising the Eastern Shore, by Mike Cox.

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