Saint John, Canada: Looking in on the Loyalists
By: Joe Volz Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2007-04-19 12:13:40.046395-04:00
Go as far northeast in the United States as you can, and then drive, fly, or sail 60-odd miles farther, and you’ll discover a beautiful little city, founded by Americans who didn’t want to call themselves Americans, but whose descendants welcome their erstwhile cousins as if there never had been an American Revolution.
The place might have looked more wild than beautiful to the Loyalists, known derogatorily as "Tories" to the brash new United States, which sent them packing after the Revolutionary War. The Loyalists had been loyal to the wrong side—the British. So the political refugees, many of them upper class colonists, came to the Canadian port of Saint John, the largest city in New Brunswick.
Saint John surrounds a narrow neck that connects the St. John River with the Bay of Fund. Among other things, the bay that introduces Maine to the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia sports the highest tides in the world. A fishing boat that might be at dockside one moment finds itself stranded on the sea floor, 36 feet below, a few hours later.
Civilization Amid The Wilds
Tourists have a wide variety of choices, from the wild, to the lush, to the comfortable. You can explore the Fund Trail, which provides a dozen spectacular lookouts onto the pristine beaches and giant tides of the Bay of Fundy. (No one seems to know who or what the bay was named after.)
Other activities include:
- Visiting Fundy National Park up the coast about 60 miles. Jet boats ride along the tide-created Reversing Falls
- Watch whales, wildlife and birds on the bay, or
- Explore the interior of this pine-scented province from north of Saint John to the capital of Fredericton and further north still, to the French-speaking part of New Brunswick. (Canadians will tell you that New Brunswick is the only truly bilingual province.)
You can skip the bay altogether and concentrate on Saint John itself. The historic section of the city, Uptown Saint John, offers a passel of pursuits and available parking that allows you to enjoy them:
- Saint John City Market reminds the visitor of Boston’s Faneuil Hall, except that Canada’s oldest farmer’s market is built like a ship’s inverted hull.
- The New Brunswick Museum takes visitors from a full-size right whale and a mastodon, to a geological trail through time, to furnishings and artwork from New Brunswick and around the world.
- The selection of restaurants and accommodations far exceeds what you might expect from a city of 75,000.
A Surfeit of Festivals
Annual events include much music, especially in July, which features the Saint John Jazz & Blues Festival, the Buckers on the Boardwalk Festival and the Summer Shakespeare Festival. In August, you can take part in the Festival and Marathon by the Sea, as well as National Acadian Days, named after the French settlers, immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the poem, “Evangeline.” September features the Kennebecasis Valley Quilt Show. October and November usher in the Saint John Arts Centre Exhibitions, featuring beautiful art on display.
You can join in celebrating those erstwhile cousins who left the United States after the American Revolution (including Benedict Arnold whom the locals didn’t like much). The Loyalist Heritage Festival includes a huge parade consisting of Loyalist regiments; re-enactors, who invade the city each July, complete with camp followers.
If the sun fails to penetrate a cloud of fog, enjoy it. Saint John honors its frequent fogs, known locally as "liquid sunshine," every bit as much as Londoners love theirs.
Links
Books
Find these books online at www.BarnesandNoble.com.
Destination St. John
By Kumari Campbell, Lerner Publishing Group, 1998.
Discovering New Brunswick
By Marianne Eiselt, Horst A. Eiselt and H.A. Eiselt, Formac Publishing Co. Ltd., 2003.
The Loyalists: Revolution, Exile, Settlement
By Christopher Moore, McClelland & Stuart/Tundra Books, 1994.
Benedict Arnold: A Traitor in Our Midst
By Barry K. Wilson, McGill-Queens University, 2001.
preview