Punamu'kwati'jk

Punamu'kwati'jk, meaning at the tomcod place, names the Dartmouth side of the great harbour known to the Mi'kmaq as Kjipuktuk. The harbour shores provided seasonal fishing grounds, and the Dartmouth lakes formed part of a waterway reaching inland. British settlement changed this landscape in the mid-eighteenth century. A sawmill was established on the Dartmouth shore in 1749, followed by a colonial settlement in 1750. A surveyed street grid introduced a new framework around the waterfront, while the Indigenous place-name retained the memory of a fishing resource. In the early nineteenth century the connection between harbour and lakes inspired a larger transport scheme. The Shubenacadie Canal Company purchased a gristmill property at Dartmouth Cove in 1826, and Irish and Scottish labourers and masons were recruited the following year. Their work included cuts and locks intended to connect the waterways. The scheme remained unfinished beyond 1837, but its early construction was already reshaping the town and its lakeside approaches.