Isolated islanders find a unique way to let Canadians know a storm cut them off from the mainland.

As Babe Ruth's life fell apart, he headed into the woods of the Maritimes in a secret and mysterious effort to get better...

The Canadian Forces in Italy during WW2 rescue a horse who they name Princess Louise who accompanies them throughout Europe and back home.

Juliana Horatia Ewing, a Victorian British author in Fredericton, formed an unlikely friendship with Welastekokewiyik master canoe builder Peter Polches, challenging societal norms; her transformative experiences led to a notable confrontation defending Indigenous people at a prestigious New Year's Party in 1869.

The dramatic rise and fall of Fredericton's curious detox centre, which involved patients taking a gold-based medicine to cure alcoholism!   https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-dr-leslie-e-keeley-gold-cure-institute-for-drunkards

As explosions rang out in Halifax in 1944, ordinary Haligonians raced toward the central ammunition storage depot to stop the flames before the city blew up … again!   backyardhistory.ca/f/the-second-halifax-explosion

Two young men volunteer to for a mysterious secret mission in Russia. One of them will not make it home alive.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/canadas-forgotten-siberian-expedition-ollie-winslows-odyssey

One of the Maritimes’ most popular ghost stories is the tale of a cursed, eternally burning sailing ship haunting the waters off of the Northern coast of New Brunswick. backyardhistory.ca

Leon Trotsky missed the beginning of the Russian Revolution because he was in -of all places- Amherst, Nova Scotia.

PEI didn't even know it was at war when the American fleet appeared. The invaders went house to house stealing clothes, carpets, and curtains ... and their Great Seal. However, one Islander who was taken captive went on to become an important spy...    

A spy arrives by U-Boat to sabotage Canada. He isn't very good.   https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-worlds-worst-nazi-spy

Houdini goes to Halifax. When his circus is arrested, he has to reevaluate his whole career.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/how-his-maritimes-tour-saved-harry-houdini-pt-2-halifax

A young Harry Houdini was on the verge of giving up on magic until a Maritimes tour changed his life.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/how-his-maritimes-tour-saved-harry-houdini-pt-1-saint-john

A forest fire approaches the thriving town of Musquash, sending its residents fleeing to a nearby marsh for safety.   Musquash was a thriving community on the Bay of Fundy, boasting several factories, mills, a railway station, and a port. All of that came to an abrupt end when the town was completely destroyed in only a couple of hours one afternoon in 1903.   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-forest-fire-that-destroyed-musquash

Everyone ignored the warnings. But the predictions were right: the storm of the century hit at exactly the hour that one man had predicted a year before... www.backyardhistory.ca     #weather #storm #astronomy #astronology #Canada #history #strange #podcast #podcastsofcanada #backyardhistory #story #true #newengland #boston #halifax #novascotia #newbrunswick #pei #mystery #spooky #paranormal

Nova Scotia (and New Brunswick) came much closer to joining the United States than a lot of Canadians today would be comfortable with!   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/benjamin-franklins-worthless-nova-scotian-land

Two Kates go to the Yukon Gold Rush. One becomes famous, the other is forgotten. But who was the REAL Klondike Kate?   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-real-klondike-kate

In 1949, a little Canadian island off of the coast of Nova Scotia declared itself to be its own country.     Calling itself The Principality of Outer Baldonia, it quickly developed all of the trappings of an independent nation: it had its own currency, postage stamps, its own flag, and a coat of arms boasting on it pictures of a tuna fish, a sheep, and a smiling lobster.    It soon became “one of the zaniest hoaxes in the history of international affairs.”    https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-nova-scotian-island-that-declared-independence

How did 111 Russian coins get buried in Bathurst? Who did it? Where did they come from and what happened to them? Lets dig into this Backyard Mystery!

Giant squid attacked Newfoundland fishing boats in 1873. This was all the more shocking because at the time people didn't believe giant squid were even real. Soon, the entire world's attention would turn towards Newfoundland.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/giant-squid-attacks-in-newfoundland

Flying Through History as The Red Devil Takes to the Skies!   On a clear Autumn day in 1912 thousands of people gathered to see the world famous Red Devil.   Amid a backdrop of the Saint John Exhibition -then the second largest in the country- competing with Toronto’s CNE for position of biggest Exhibition in Canada, another rivalry was playing out.   The Red Devil’s pilot, Captain Baldwin, was competing with the airplane's then rival for the future of the skies; the hot air balloon, and its pilot Professor Bonnette. Back then hot air balloons were considered much safer and faster than airplanes, and most sensible people thought the airplane would be a short-lived novelty.   The rival airplane versus balloon pilots competed for the public’s approval by engaging in increasingly daring and risky behavior. After Professor Bonnette wowed the crowd by parachuting out of his balloon –and accidentally ending up in the Harbour– Captain Baldwin decided to one-up him by taking a local Saint Johner along with him aboard The Red Devil.   One extremely reluctant and very unhappy reporter was forced by his newspaper editor to go on a trip on the airplane, a then-brand new technology only invented nine years earlier. His vivid description of flying over Saint John in the earliest days of aviation memorably begins with the angry opening line: “The editor is an autocrat...”   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-red-devil---new-brunswicks-first-airplane

Camp B-70, near Fredericton,  held captured German Nazis and Fascist Italians during the Second World War. The prisoners and guards played an elaborate game of cat and mouse, with constant attempts at escape. Remarkably, one escape was actually stopped by an actual real live cat, who had been performing in the camp as part of a traveling circus..

When a bank robber gets stuck in a chimney on April Fools Day, nobody believes a 12 year old boy trying to save him..   On the cold and moonless night in the winter of 1848, the only ever attempted robbery of the Bank of New Brunswick in Saint John took place.   It was not the least bit successful, and turned into quite the bizarre -but true- night long incident. https://backyardhistory.ca/f/bungling-bank-burglar-gets-stuck-in-chimney

“While I am writing to you the shells are screaming and the bullets are hitting but why should I care? I have just had a good meal!” wrote Emile Goguen, an Acadian lumberjack from New Brunswick who had volunteered to go fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War, and who would be interrogated about his activities while there.   More than 1500 Canadians volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The only New Brunswicker to join was Emile Goguen.

Prince Edward Island was the first place in Canada to have a car ... and the only province to ban them!   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/when-pei-banned-cars

A beloved Canadian radio host and author had a radical past.   In the 1960s a Maritimer achieved Canada wide fame for his talent in gardening. Known as Mr Green Thumbs, this kindly old man put out no fewer than four massive bestselling books on gardening, and ran a popular regular radio show on how to grow plants. Mr Green Thumbs’ many dedicated fans likely didn’t know that behind the friendly voice and the kindly writing style of the old man, was a devoted lifelong communist who was so dedicated to his cause that soon after the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the communist Soviet Union, the radical gardener went to that new country to see the revolution in action for himself…

Elizabeth Beard fought in the American Revolution ... against the Americans.   One New Brunswick woman became something of a worldwide sensation for her remarkable feats fighting in the American Revolution. She was fighting not for the Americans though, but against them.   Her heroics were completely overlooked and forgotten during that chaotic time, but late her life, the public learned about what she had done decades earlier, and stories of her youthful acts became widely known all over both Europe and North America.   backyardhistory.ca

Saint John's genteel Rockwood Park was once turned into a modern electric circus. For several years Saint John’s iconic Rockwood Park –the largest urban park in Canada at the time– was turned into a summer fair grounds based on Coney Island. In the early 1900s it featured rides that had never been seen before like a ferris wheel and merry go around, nightly fireworks, bars and restaurants, and acrobatic performances so daring the daredevil chickened out, but a local waiter stepped in to perform them instead. backyardhistory.ca

Like the Alamo, but in Fredericton.   Fredericton’s first European settlement was a French fort, which was attacked and besieged by a fleet from New England. The story of the battle is kind of like the American myth of the Alamo. A small and beleaguered band of defenders is facing down a vastly larger and better equipped army of invaders. Except in this case they are coming up from what is now the United States. The invaders have a reputation for massacres, and losing the battle would likely mean death. However, just before the battle begins, the defenders' spirits are bolstered by a group of famous heroes of their time, who have come to aid the motley crew of defenders in their time of need…   backyardhistory.ca

In 1815 Nova Scotia was overrun by mice.   Dr. George Patterson later interviewed people who lived through what was called Year of the Mice. The horrors of that year left a mark on those who had experienced it so deep that he found that elderly people that had personally experienced the mouse invasion still used it as a measurement of time. ‘Sixty-two Years After The Mice,’ Dr. Patterson wrote that these had been no ordinary mice: “They were very destructive and actually fierce. If pursued, when hard pressed, they would stand at bay, rising upon their hind legs, setting their teeth and squealing fiercely. A farmer on whom I could rely told me that having, after planting, spread out some barley to dry in the sun before the door, in a little while he saw it covered with them. He let the cat out among them, but they actually turned upon her and fought her.” backyardhistory.ca

A fleet of Fascist Italian airplanes stop in a little seaside resort town in the Maritimes … with a dark political agenda.   On July 13th 1933 a reporter for the Moncton Daily Times was rushing towards the newly built wharfs of the tiny seaside village of Shediac. He is trying to make it in time to catch a glimpse of an incredible sight: 24 massive airplanes flying in a giant V formation that were arriving all the way from Italy...   To see plenty of photos of the Italian Air Armada's arrival in Shediac check out: https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/when-the-fascist-italian-air-armada-came-to-new-brunswick  

In the 1920s two hermit brothers on Grand Manan became internationally famous as the mysterious “Dark Harbour Hermits.” Hundreds of tourists from the United States and even faraway Europe came to visit them in their homemade shacks on the beaches of the strange and isolated place known as Dark Harbour, where the hermits would entertain the tourists with their art, their poems, and their songs. backyardhistory.ca

The Maritimes were briefly the Dutch colony of Nova Hollandia..   We’re always taught in school that ever since European colonists arrived in what is now Canada, that it was always a colony of either England or France. However, it’s a little-known fact that for a brief time the Maritimes were conquered by the Dutch, and were a short lived colony with a remarkably bizarre history, named Nova Hollandia.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/when-the-maritimes-were-dutch

An unlikely trio is celebrated by a US President for their heroic rescue of sailors stranded for days on a rock in a storm.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/wreck-and-rescue-of-the-velma

“They will not allow me to go home,” begins the haunting diary that Mary Huestis Pengilly wrote while locked up in the Saint John Lunatic Asylum, Canada’s first ever mental health institution. She wrote vividly in a secret diary about her experiences as a patient in the Asylum in the 1880s, which she later published into a book. After her release, she became a high profile and outspoken advocate for reforming how mental health was treated in both Canada and the United States. https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/secret-diary-in-the-lunatic-asylum

A mysterious stranger bombs a bridge...   At 2 in the morning on a freezing cold night in the middle of a heavy snowstorm on February 2nd, 1915, a man placed a large black bag under a key railway bridge linking the Canada-US border.    The man, who was a German agent on a mission to cripple the transportation of key war material to the trenches of the First World War, unspooled a lengthy fuse, lit it.   Soon an explosion rang out with such force that it shattered windows on both sides of the border…   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/german-agents-bombed-a-new-brunswick-bridge

Nothing was quite what it seemed...   In the Summer of 1906 The Maritimes were captivated by a strange mystery when two young children disappeared in broad daylight from right in front of their house. One reporter, who signed her articles simply as The Special Correspondent, went to the tiny village of Cape Tormentine to investigate the disappearances. The more she learned about the case, the stranger it became, as she met a very unusual group of people, each of whom seemed to be hiding something... https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-the-creamer-children

A baseball star becomes one of the few Black Canadians to fight in the First World War.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/fighting-for-the-right-to-fight

A simple question leads to a lost colony in Cape Breton..   What does “Fundy” mean? Where does the unusual name for the large bay between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia boasting the highest tides in the world come from? The short answer is that it’s Portuguese, but figuring out what “Fundy” means involves a lost colony, confused explorers, and a perplexing mix up..   There is some surviving evidence of a 1521 Portuguese lost colony in The Maritimes. If true, this would be the first European settlement in the whole continent, even earlier than the much more famous American lost colony of Roanoke.    https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/what-does-fundy-mean https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/the-lost-colony

Is it a ghost haunting the woods or something else?   A car load of four young people -two guys and two girls- were driving home from a dance on a dark and stormy Halloween night in 1930. They were on a dark road going through the woods between the small towns of Richibucto and Rexton on New Brunswick’s East Coast, when they had a bizarre close encounter with a ghost…   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-spectre-of-rexton-bootleggers-dressed-as-ghosts

One province defeats a pandemic and in the process influences all of North America, leading to improvements in healthcare all over Canada and the United States as they copy the latest developments in ... New Brunswick.   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/pandemic-1918-how-one-doctor-saved-new-brunswick

Canada decides which side to drive on.   For much of its history half of Canada drove on the opposite side of the road from the other half. Ontario and Quebec drove on the right, while British Columbia and The Maritimes drove on the left. When New Brunswick changed sides of the road the year became wryly known as “The Year of Free Beef.” https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/switching-from-driving-on-the-left-to-driving-on-the-right

"Oh my god we're saved by a girl," the sailor gasped before passing out.   In 1882 a teenager was celebrated for risking her life heroically rescuing shipwrecked sailors in a cold Autumn storm. https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/oh-my-god-were-saved-by-a-girl-teenager-saves-sailors-at-sea

After a life of piracy, a man retreats to the woods to escape justice and hide his treasure. About an hour southwest of Fredericton is Charlie Lake, named after a mysterious hermit who lived there long ago, alone with his little dog. It was said the hermit was a pirate, hiding from the law, who had buried a great treasure by the lake which still bears his name.. https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-pirate-of-charlie-lake

The host enters an abandoned spaceport in the Arctic.   An intricate maze of metal corridors connect the massive buildings far up in Canada's Arctic. It was once the centre of one of the world's leading space research facility. Later it became the center of an international race between Canada and the United States to build the world's first commercial spaceport. The winner would dominate the launch of the race of satellites in the then-upcoming 21st century. In this very special episode of the Backyard History Podcast, host Andrew MacLean is stranded by airplane engine problems in Churchill Manitoba, encountering polar bears, beluga whales, the northern lights, and discovering the remains of the massive abandoned spaceport.   When he notices an open hatch on the roof, he climbs down a ladder and enters into the murky darkness below... backyardhistory.ca

One woman's battle against lawmakers led to wins women's rights.   One largely forgotten New Brunswick woman led --and won-- not one but two important battles for women's rights in two separate provinces -one on each side of the country; first in New Brunswick and later in British Columbia. https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/new-brunswick-woman-wins-fights-for-rights-in-nb-and-bc

A 1961 nuclear attack drill goes awry.    Air raid sirens rang out from coast to coast, and an eerie voice announced that Canada was under attack: 14 nuclear missiles were inbound. The sombre voice then went on to tell startled citizens that this was the beginning of a country-wide drill, and that for the next 24 hours Canada would be behaving as if it had just been the subject of a massive nuclear strike.  The day was November 13th 1961, and for many Canadians this came as a surprise: while there had been some talk of the exercise beforehand, talk was quite different from air raid sirens going off for 3 minutes straight, followed by a voice announcing nuclear missiles were incoming. https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/dont-forget-to-tell-the-public-about-the-mock-nuclear-attack

A large stone with a face carved into it has people puzzled about who made it.   In 1863 a recent Scottish immigrant was wandering through the stark and desolate area above Lake Utopia looking for rocks to build a fireplace when he made an astonishing discovery. When he wiped a thick layer of moss off a large flat stone, he discovered that carved upon it was an intricately detailed human face. Speculation that it was an ancient Egyptian artifact quickly spread.. https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-mysterious-lake-utopia-medallion  

Amelia Earhart visits Newfoundland and The Maritimes on the way to make history.   Amelia Earhart kept her plans to become the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic a secret. But when she arrived in Saint John to refuel and spend the night, the secret was out and Saint Johners were in a wild frenzy to see the famous pilot about to make history… https://backyardhistory.ca/f/when-amelia-earhart-came-to-the

Said to be home to spirits, pirates’ buried treasure, and a trapped ghost ship..   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-mysterious-isle-haute

They had no idea the stranger who had come to Bathurst was an escaped Nazi Prisoner of War waiting for a U-Boat to get him..

The story of one of the most famous rum running schooners that was sunk during an epic pursuit in the 1920s

Lobster. From pauper to proper. A history.   The North American lobster is now a staple of high-end restaurants, and a cultural icon in the Maritimes and New England, but this was not always the case. At one time lobster was considered a paupers’ food, something people were embarrassed to be seen eating because it showed that they were poor. It was fed to prisoners and slaves, used as fertilizers in fields, and feed for pigs. At one point servants would stipulate in their contracts that they could not be fed lobster, just to avoid having to eat the hated shellfish.  https://backyardhistory.ca/f/from-pauper-to-proper-the-story-of-lobster-in-the-maritimes

Here’s a question for a hot Summer day: did early Maritimers go to the beach?   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-history-of-going-to-the-beach

The first people to ever walk all the way across Canada were Cape Bretoners who did it because someone bet them they couldn't.   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-first-people-to-walk-across-canada-did-it-because-of-a-bet

In only two hours massive fire completely destroys bustling Campbellton.   At 2pm on July 11th 1910 Campbellton was a prosperous town of 6000 people on New Brunswick’s North Shore. Two hours later it would be completely destroyed in a massive inferno. But it doesn't break the spirit of the people and they rebuild within a year.   https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/in-only-two-hours-campbellton-burned-to-the-ground

The true story behind the chilling ghost story.   Around Maritime campfires we tell the tale of the Dungarvon Whooper – a macabre ghost story of a cook who was murdered for a bag of money, and who haunted the forests making screaming noises that sounded like whoops. The story was based on actual mysterious incidents around Miramichi in the mid-1800s. In 1896 one Fredericton reporter may have discovered the true story behind those haunting screams. And his true story is even stranger than the ghost story…   https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/the-dungarvon-who

A grey mist hung over the land which the rain never cleared. Snow fell in June and July. Frost came in August. Crops didn’t grow. The spectre of starvation hung over the Maritimes. One year Summer never arrived in the Maritimes, earning that miserable year the nicknames; The Poverty Year; Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death, and The Year Without A Summer. https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-year-without-a-summer  

If you think Maritimers drink a lot today, wait till you hear how much earlier generations of Maritimers drank!

A tragic true story of forbidden love, bloody murder, and miscarried justice in Fredericton.   Elizabeth Driscoll was considered the most beautiful young woman in Fredericton. “A very sweet, ladylike girl” wrote famous British author Juliana Horatia Ewing who happened to be in town during the murder, trial, and subsequent riots. "But," Juliana wrote, "Elizabeth’s family has always been a bad lot.”   https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/getting-away-with-murder

After a small town mob boss starts making big moves in the black market, a straight-laced British detective goes undercover to try to figure out what is going on.

Much to a small village's surprise, a Soviet bomber crash lands in a bog. The world turns its attention to the 1939 race to get to first reach the pilots.

Unraveling a legendary Maritimes mystery.   A few days before Christmas in 1859 a mysterious stranger was found freezing, but still alive, alone deep in the woods. Disabled from his injuries, he would be murdered to save the town money. Or did he escape death and start a new life? Coincidentally, around the same time he goes missing in New Brunswick, a mysterious legless man washes up on the beach of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.  https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-legless-mystery-man

Newspaper reports tell the story of a crazy invention seen driving around the streets of Saint John NB. Was it the first car to be invented?

A circus rolls in to small town Fredericton, but tensions between the performers and the locals soon boil over. A dead snake is thrown on the stage, and a riot erupts..

During the First World War, the crew of a Canadian naval vessel was abducted by a German U-boat, but were surprised to find what they were met with on board.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/ship-crew-gets-captured-by-u-boat-in-bay-of-fundy-served-lunch

When a young Oscar Wilde toured the Maritimes, not everything went according to plan.   When Oscar Wilde’s tour of the Maritimes was being booked, it was not expected to be a success. Despite being heckled in Fredericton, and reports circulating around the world that he got arrested in Moncton, the tour was a rousing success. Every date was sold out, scalpers were selling tickets outside at outrageous prices, Nova Scotia's Governor gave him a personal tour of Halifax, he received rapturous receptions, extra dates had to be added, and a wave of people began copying his style across the region.   https://backyardhistory.ca/f/oscar-wildes-tour-of-the-maritimes

Lost deep in the woods of Nova Scotia on a maze of logging roads, I came across a faded sign saying “The Electric City - La Nouvelle France.” Intrigued, I followed it, and found the abandoned ruins of what had once been an egalitarian utopian society. It had been among the first places in the Maritimes to have electricity and running water, and even boasted a train which ran on wooden rails.   https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-electric-city

What are the origins of the mysterious Mount House and is it the oldest building in The Maritimes?

There aren't any wolves in New Brunswick, right? Well not according to these 19th century accounts of wolf attacks that took place throughout the province.

When disease breaks out in a remote northern community, two ace pilots battle the elements of a Canadian Winter to bring them much needed medicine.

A tale filled with ups and downs, as one man tries desperately to get his balloon into air, in what was the first ever flight in Canada, which took place in Saint John.

Christmas through the eyes and told through the diary entries of average  people living in the 19th century.

It took a while for people to adopt having Christmas trees in their homes. Perhaps because they used to be lit with open flames, and Santa once nearly met his end because of a flaming Christmas tree!

The story of how Christmas was banned, and how before Santa Claus became popular, children hung the stocking by the chimney with care in hopes that Mab, Queen of The Fairies would soon be there.

Explore the unexpected -and heartwarming- tale of the first Christmases in North America. Just like the American Thanksgiving myth, excet actually real!

An unhealthy lifestyle leads to coronation drama when King Bertie is set to take the throne but needs his appendix removed the day of the ceremony.

A young woman disguises herself as a man to go and fight in the American Civil war as a soldier, nurse, and spy.

Tasked with a mission set to cripple Canada's supply routes during the second world war, a Nazi spy abandons his orders when the locals offer him nothing but kindness.

Just two minutes before the end of the First World War, the final soldier fell: Nova Scotian George Price.

The Maritimes' biggest Prohibition Era rum running kingpin.   When you think of the Prohibition Era, the mind immediately goes to famous American gangsters like Al Capone. But The Maritimes were home to our own rum running gangsters, the biggest, most powerful and widely feared gang was “the Madawaska Mob” led by a man who chose the distinctly less-than-intimidating alias “Joe Walnut.”   Joe Walnut was described by his nemesis, Detective William Carr as “Tall and slim, agile as a cat, with thin, cruel lips. His eyes were black as coal, yet slightly protruding, with white bloodshot from constant drinking. He was reported to have a fiendish temper, and few scruples. He was a real adventurer – a relic of the old buccaneering type. There was nothing on earth he enjoyed more than to match his wits against those of the men who represented law and order.”   https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/joe-walnut-and-the-madawaska-mob

What lurks beneath the surface of Lake Utopia? Eye witness accounts tell the tale of a monster who stalked fishermen and visitors of the lake for years.