Ministers Island

Day 31 Seeleys Cove

No riding today.

We started our day with a somewhat lengthy dog walk around New River Beach Provincial Park on which Darcy's two standard poodles entertained us with their ability to get us to fetch sticks.

Later in the day, our hosts Darcy and his wife Mel took us to explore Ministers Island. This is an island just off St. Andrews town in south New Brunswick, where access is via a "bar road", a strip of rock and sand connecting the island to the mainland accessible only during low tide. There is no road per se but when the tide is out, the bar road is dry enough for a vechicle to make the trip across the water and onto the island to see the sights there. When we arrived at the island and entered the ground through the access gate, the attendant told us in no uncertain terms that the limit for leaving the island was by 3:15. After that, we would be at risk to not be able to leave until the next low tide, 12 hours later, a prospect that woud throw a lot of uncertainty into our schedule and a lot of discomfort into our sleeping arrangments, since there is no accododation or food on the island.

What the island does have though, is a once summer home and working farm of Sir William Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, who bought the island in 1891. He had built a three story barn that housed cattle milking stations, pens for Clydesdale horses, pig pens and as well, a 50 room, 10,000 square foot summer home that was used to entertain European and Asian royalty and special guests. There were numerous out buildings including a creamery, smaller barns and living quarters for workers on the farm and in the main house where Van Horne would live in the summer with his family.

Pen for Clydesdale horses. Nan is reaching up to am where the horses could look out.

Though the property and buildings had been owned by American interests for the period of 1961 to 1977 the province of New Brunswick aquired the island in the interests of preserving the history of an important individual who had helped to unite the country with a national railway, which, incidently, was completed six years ahead of schedule and under budget.