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Port Hastings village looking north towards Canal and Causeway
1958
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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PORT HASTINGS HISTORICAL SOCIETY - A group of interested residents organized in October of 1978 to research and preserve the history of District One, Port Hastings. Students on a summer grant in 1979 interviewed older residents and mounted our first display in St. David's Church Hall.
The members soon realized that the 25th Anniversary of the official opening of the Canso Causeway would be on August 13th, 1980. They called the meeting to organize a committee to oversee this historic event in March 1980. The Canso Causeway Anniversary Society was incorporated under the chairmanship of Blair Brewer and a group of dedicated volunteers.

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Port Hastings Tourist Bureau
13 August 1980
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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UNVEILING HISTORICAL DISPLAYS - On August 13th,1980 as part of the day long 25th Anniversary celebrations, informative display boards made by the summer staff for the Historical Society were unveiled inside and outside the provincial Tourist Information Bureau at Port Hastings at the entrance to Cape Breton Island.
We also had the first brochure produced with pertinent statistics and facts to be available for visitors.

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The Gut of Canso Museum and Archives
2004
Gut of Canso Museum and Archives

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THE PORT HASTINGS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES was the first community museum established in the Strait of Canso area. Members opened the doors to the Port Hastings Museum and Archives (renamed the Gut of Canso Museum and Archives in 2000) in a storey and a half house on Church St. in 1982. This was less than four years after the founding meeting. The house which was over one hundred years old was donated to us by the descendants of the late Daniel MacIntosh family.
The history of the original settlers from the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, Loyalists from the USA, and Scotch and Irish pioneers was our interest initially. We compiled census, church, land grant information, wills and deeds, and other records.
Ferries, railroads, coal pier, telegraph offices, hobbies and entertainment, lifestyle and communities, were other topics covered. Displays are interspersed with many artifacts.

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'Genie Ology' sits in the 'Family Room' where many of the house display binders are on display.
1982
Gut of Canso Museum and Archives

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FAMILY ROOM - Genie Ology sits in the Family Room where we have many House Display Binders. These cover the communities of Troy, Creignish, Craigmore and Long Point along route 19, out the Trans Canada Highway as far as Queensville, South Rhodena and Creignish Rear over to Macdale, Sugar Camp, Askilton, and Crandall Road, the village of Port Hastings and Point Tupper down to Bear Head, the town of Port Hawkesbury and across the Canso Causeway to Auld's Cove and the town of Mulgrave.
Genealogical researchers, former residents and local people appreciate seeing their families represented in these community binders. The binders are a work in progress as we continue adding information to them.

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Tall Ship Gedania reception by Port Hastings Historical Society
14 June 1984
Canso Canal

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HISTORIC OCCASIONS RECOGNIZED - The Port Hastings Historical Society welcomed the first non North American ship to arrive at the Canso Canal in June 1984 as part of the Tall Ships Parade of Sail. The Class B and C ships passed through the Canal on their historic voyage to Quebec City to help celebrate the 450th Anniversary of Jacques Cartier's first voyage to North America. The Gedania from the Gdansk Shipyard in Poland was the first to arrive.
The crew was greeted by a piper and given a Cape Breton welcome in the Canso Canal reception area by the Historical Society members, local political representatives and entertained by highland dancers.

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Port Hastings Historical Society entertaining visitors in St. David's Church Hall.
1986
St. David's Church Hall, Port Hastings

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CEILIDHS (KAY LEES) FOR VISITORS - The Port Hastings Historical Society started having local, young, talented musicians and dancers from the area perform during summer concerts in 1986. Held in St. David's Church Hall, visitors benefited because of the renewed interest in learning to play the fiddle in this area of Cape Breton Island around 1973 and the Port Hawkesbury Highland Dance group being formed.

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Creignish School students visit the Museum.
1983
Port Hastings Museum and Archives

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SCHOOL CLASSES VISIT - Students from Creignish Elementary listen to the story of the early settlers in the Commerce Room before touring the Museum.
A spinning wheel, daisy butter churn, home made broom, wooden washing machine and blacksmith tools are a few of the artifacts found in the Pioneer Room upstairs.
Children have a better understanding of life in earlier times after lifting the flat irons and hearing the stories of the wash being taken down to the brook in summer.