Kingsport, Nova Scotia

Kingsport is a small seaside village located in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the shores of the Minas Basin.

[1] Kingsport is located just northeast of the mouth of the Habitant River, on the west side of Minas Basin, a few miles east of Canning at the eastern end of Route 221.

After the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, Kingsport was settled by New England Planters One source indicates that Indian Point is mentioned as Lot 16, second division, Cornwallis township granted to Benjamin Newcomb in 1761.

[1] Starting with the schooner Diadem in 1864, Cox became the master shipbuilder for a series of partnerships which built over 30 vessels of increasing size.

[5] The shipyard included a large mill and blacksmith and used tugboats to brings rafts of timber from the Cape Blomidon area.

The launch of Canada on July 6, 1891 attracted over 5,000 people from all across Western Nova Scotia, brought to Kingsport by multiple special trains on the Cornwallis Valley Railway.

The last major launch being the barquentine Skoda on June 1, 1893, although the Kingsport shipyard refocused for a number of years on ship repair.

The yard used the massive Minas Basin tides as a natural drydock into the 1920s repairing such vessels as the American Bradford C. French, the largest three masted schooner ever built.

First a hotel, and in later years an ice cream parlour and a dance hall were operated near the wharf area during the summer months.

The new generation in Kingsport today cannot recall the scream of flanges as a railway engine was turned on the Wye, the daily arrivals at the government wharf, the whistle of the Kipawo and of the train approaching, or the ringing of the school bell summoning the children to the morning and afternoon sessions at the country schoolhouse.

[14] However Kingsport remained a popular local holiday location for cottagers and in the 1970s emerged as a bedroom community for the growing towns of Eastern Kings County.

The fictional Kingsport is a larger town combining elements inspired by Halifax and Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

[17] The famous Canadian poet Bliss Carman wrote a classic poem of courage about a Kingsport schooner named Scud and her fearless twelve-year-old master.

[18] Kingsport features prominently in the book Blomidon Rose, a nostalgic look at the life and landscape of 1930s Annapolis Valley by Esther Clark Wright.