Yarmouth is a port town located on the Bay of Fundy in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada.
Originally inhabited by the Mi'kmaq, the region was known as "Keespongwitk" meaning "Lands End" due to its position at the tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula.
[3] The region was visited in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, who named it "Cap-Fourchu", meaning "forked or cloven cape.
Through the 19th century, the town was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point boasting more registered tonnage per capita than any other port in the world.
[4] As wooden shipbuilding declined in the late 19th century, Yarmouth's shipowners re-invested their capital into factories, iron-hulled steamships, and railways.
Steamship and railway promotion based in Yarmouth created the first tourism marketing in Nova Scotia.
The DAR and Halifax and South Western Railway offered connections for passengers arriving in Yarmouth with steamship services operating to New York City and Boston.
In 1939, examiners at Yarmouth's Merchant Marine Institution made seafaring history by issuing master's papers to Molly Kool, the first female ship captain in the Western World.
Following the war, as the economy of western Nova Scotia improved, the need for a year-round daily service was made evident.
The service was needed as a more timely route for transport of goods between markets in Nova Scotia and the United States.
This led citizens of southwestern Nova Scotia to undertake an extensive lobbying effort with the federal government to establish a ferry service in the Gulf of Maine connecting Yarmouth with a port in New England.
In 1986, CN Marine was reorganized into the Crown corporation Marine Atlantic and in 1997, the federal government decided to end its financial support for the Gulf of Maine ferry service, soliciting proposals from private sector ferry companies to operate the route.
The City of Portland subsequently cancelled the company's lease and evicted Scotia Prince Cruises, thus ending this ferry service.
Bay Ferries purchased MV Bluenose from Marine Atlantic and used that vessel for the remainder of the 1997 season before selling it.
Beginning in 2003, Bay Ferries began operating HSC The Cat during the winter months on services in the Caribbean.
Following the end of the service offered by Scotia Prince Cruises in 2004, Bay Ferries began operating HSC The Cat in 2006 between Yarmouth to Portland, in addition to Bar Harbor; the old Portland ferry terminal being replaced by the newly built Ocean Gateway International Marine Passenger Terminal.
[16] In 2013 the provincial government posted a request for proposals for re-establishing a Yarmouth - Maine ferry service, stating that a successful proponent would receive a $21 million subsidy over a 7-year period.
Nova Star Cruises also announced it was examining the possibility of using the vessel during the winter months on a service between Colombia and Panama, bypassing the Darién Gap.
[17] On March 24, 2016, Bay Ferries Limited announced that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Maritime Administration and the U.S. Navy for a multi-year charter of HST-2.
[18][19][20] During the first year of the Second World War, Yarmouth was selected as the location for a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) facility.
The Air Base was home to the 9th Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery, various RCAF and RAF Bomber Squadrons and an Army Co-operation Reconnaissance Flight.
[21] Several smaller installations associated with RCAF Station Yarmouth were located in southwestern Nova Scotia, including a bombing range at Port Maitland, a fuel depot at Digby, and radar detachments at Plymouth, Tusket, Bear Point, Port Mouton and Rockville.
The Yarmouth Arts Regional Council was established in 1974, under the leadership of Lydia Davison, a local music teacher.
Over the next five years, with the assistance of the Canada Council and many volunteers, the Yarmouth Arts Regional Centre (Th'YARC) was constructed on the site of a former garage on Parade Street.
Th'YARC continues to operate to this day, with the 350-seat Lydia Davison Theatre, an art gallery and a print-making shop.
Yarmouth is known for some of the most exuberant examples of Victorian houses in the Maritimes, a legacy of the wealthy captains and shipowners of the town's seafaring Golden Age.
Being near the -3 °C isotherm in the average of the coldest month (east of the city), causing that in peninsular areas like Yarmouth Bar and Cape Forchu are between a transition band for the oceanic climates (Cfb).