The Tantramar Heritage Trust is once again presenting their popular annual Heritage Day celebrations, this year with a theme of "Glimpses From our 250 Years", referring to the 250th anniversary of the founding of Sackville Township in 1762. Events will be held on Saturday, February 11th.

The day will begin in the morning with a breakfast, displays and other activities, at Tantramar Regional High School. The delicious breakfast will feature eggs, bacon, sausage, home-baked beans, toast, orange juice, tea, and coffee from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Tickets for the breakfast are $7 for adults and $4 for those 10 years old and under, and they can be purchased at the Trust office or at the door.

In addition to the usual roster of interesting and fun activities that occur at every Trust Heritage Day, this year a special set of activities have been designed to allow young people to have fun while their parents visit the displays and enjoy other aspects of the morning.

Lucy MacDonald from the Owens Art Gallery will be on hand to present an activity centred around Colville House, using a computer where people can explore the interactive timeline of Alex Colville's life and work that the Owens is developing, and she will have copies of the Colville House Sketchbook to give to anyone interested in doing some drawing. Along with this activity, the Trust's new Education and Outreach Intern, Charlotte Gleave Riemann, will present activities especially aimed at young people and families.

The morning part of Heritage Day will also feature displays by the Tantramar Heritage Trust, the Town of Sackville Heritage Board, Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland NHS, Marshview Middle School, Westmorland Historical Society, and several others from 8 a.m. to noon with live music performed by Cecelia Jennings on fiddle and Bernard Soubry:on bodhran and guitar. And Tantramar's own popular version of the Antiques Roadshow will be hosted by Ray Dixon from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Members of the public can bring in their antiques and have them appraised for only $5.

Afternoon activities for Heritage Day will feature interesting talks on local history, and the launching of a new Trust publication. Starting at 1:30 p.m., at the Sackville Visitor Centre on Mallard Drive, Paul Bogaard will present a talk titled "The Struggle for Sackville" which will kick-off the Trust's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Sackville Township with some historical highlights and an overview of Trust events for the year. The book The Store and More - History of J.L. Black and Sons , by Larry Black will also be launched, and Al Smith will speak on the book and related history.

The third speaker for the afternoon will be from Acadia University. Sarah Story, chief student researcher, will speak on Acadia University's historical research into the Beaubassin area (and their research station on the Tantramar marshes) in a talk titled "Historical Research on Beaubassin, the Tantramar, and the Chignecto Isthmus". Sarah will present on her activities as a student researcher involved in the Beaubassin Project, with particular emphasis on the oral history of the Tonge's Island site upon which the Beaubassin Research Station now stands, and the marshlands and uplands that surround the island. Acadia University's "Beaubassin Project" is a study of the human history of the Beaubassin Research Station site, dating back to first habitation by aboriginal peoples and progressing through settlements by Acadians, Planters, Yorkshire settlers, and 19th- and 20th-century farmers.

The Trust is also still looking for volunteers for the day, for a wide variety of activities ranging from kitchen work to selling books and everything in between. For information on these events, or to volunteer, please contact the Trust at 536-2541.

The Tantramar Heritage Trust is pleased to announce the first of four new publications to be released in Sackville's 250th Anniversary year. A Country Store and More is the story of three generations of a Middle Sackville, New Brunswick, family in Business, Military, Political, Church, Education, and Community Affairs. The author, Larry Black, has uniquely intertwined the story of the Black family and its many businesses into the social and economic development of the Town of Sackville and outlying regions. As merchants, farmers, lumbermen, soldiers and industrialists, the Blacks influenced the economic, social and political evolution of their times, not just locally, but regionally and, at times, nationally.

Joseph Laurence (Larry) Black is uniquely qualified to tell this tale. As a member of the family he has had unequalled access to their story, both oral and written. As a distinguished historian and scholar, he possesses the insight and ability to craft from this material a vibrant portrait of a community and a society making the transition from pioneer village to modern times.

The 252 page book includes 48 photos and illustrations and a listing of personal names mentioned in the text. It will be of great interest not only to people interested in the historical development of Sackville, but also to the families of the many employees at "The Store".

A Country Store and More is the Trust's 22nd publication. It will be formally launched Feb. 11, 2012 at the Sackville Tourist Information Centre, Mallard Drive during the Tantramar Heritage Trust's Heritage Day activities, time 1:30PM - 3:30PM.

HMCS Sackville Exhibit

Photo © Sandy McClearn, see http://smcclearn.smugmug.com

In honour of the celebration of 100 years of the Canadian Navy, the Tantramar Heritage Trust unveiled their HMCS Sackville exhibit at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre (29 B Queen's Road) on Sunday 16 September 2010. The display now also features exhibits on local naval veterans Dr. Jim Purdy, Charles Fawcett and Joe Atkinson.

The HMCS Sackville was built in Saint John in 1940, and has always had a place in the hearts of Sackville residents, having been named after the Town. It was commissioned into the Navy in 1941, and saw extensive use during World War II as an escort and training ship, among other duties. Following the war, while all of the other ships of the Canada's Corvette fleet were destroyed or sold, Sackville became a "loop layer" (electrical cables which recorded changes in the earth's magnetic 'field caused by the passing of a ship and were part of port defences), and later was an oceanographic research vessel based out of St. Andrews, New Brunswick. In 1958, Sackville made a trip to the Arctic in conjunction with Columbia University to find new sources of fish (should the ones on the grand bank fail). During 1962 Sackville logged 21,000 nautical miles, and was at sea for 152 days. In August 1982, on her last voyage ever, the ship returned to Halifax from a trip to Bermuda. Since then, the ship has become a naval museum and is Canada's Naval Memorial.

The HMCS Sackville exhibit at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre includes seldom seen artefacts and other items related to the ship (many on loan from the Town of Sackville), an in depth history of the ship, and a detailed scale model built by historian and former Sackville resident Dr. Marc Milner, who is the Director of UNB's Brigadier Milton F. Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

This exhibit continues to be on display.