Stewiacke (/ˈstjuːiæk/) is a town located in southern Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The town was incorporated on August 30, 1906.
Stewiacke | |
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Town | |
![]() Town of Stewiacke Public Works Building and Cenotaph | |
Nickname(s): Halfway between the North Pole and the Equator | |
Motto(s): Respect, Prosperity, Growth | |
![]() ![]() Stewiacke Location of Stewiacke, Nova Scotia | |
Coordinates: 45°8′32″N 63°20′54″W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Nova Scotia |
Municipality | Colchester County |
Incorporated | August 30, 1906 |
Government | |
• Mayor | George Lloy |
• Governing Body | Stewiacke Town Council |
• MLA | Larry Harrison |
• MP | Lenore Zann (L) |
Area (2016)[1] | |
• Total | 17.62 km2 (6.80 sq mi) |
Elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
Population (2021)[2] | |
• Total | 1,557 |
• Density | 88.4/km2 (229/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC−4 (AST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−3 (ADT) |
Postal code | B0N 2J0 |
Area code | 902 |
Telephone Exchange | 639, 671 |
Median Earnings* | $55,339 |
NTS Map | 11E3 Shubenacadie |
GNBC Code | CBKOM[3] |
Website | stewiacke.net |
Places in Nova Scotia |
The town is located in the Stewiacke Valley, at the confluence of the Stewiacke and Shubenacadie Rivers, and is a service and support centre for local agricultural communities as well as a service exit on Highway 102.
The town is noted as being located halfway between the North Pole and the Equator (which is actually in Alton, Nova Scotia).[4] Controversy in the past over that claim stems from the fact that the Earth is not a perfect sphere and so the halfway mark lies approximately 16 km north of the 45th parallel.[5]
Stewiacke was named in the language of the local Mi'kmaq First Nations and is a word meaning "flowing out in small streams" and "winding river" or "whimpering or whining as it goes".[6] During the French and Indian War, the British built Fort Ellis in the area to protect New England Planters from Mi'kmaq raids.
In the late 1990s, a tourism attraction named Mastodon Ridge opened near the town's highway exit, based on a local discovery of a mastodon skeleton. The Mastodon Ridge Complex features a craft store, toy store, a mini golf and interpretive centre which displays several of the mastodon's bones.
Stewiacke is home to a bar, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a pizzeria, numerous fast food restaurants, two gas stations, a hardware store, an 18-hole golf course and a newly built elementary school that consolidates 2 former local schools.
Stewiacke is also home to a volunteer fire brigade that was the first department in North America to use specialized foam as a fire suppression agent, alongside other achievements involving the implementation of certain fire apparatus.
The town's most notorious event occurred on April 12, 2001, when a local teenager, at home on a school in-service day, tampered with a railway switch on the CN Rail Halifax-Montreal mainline, causing Via Rail Canada's Ocean to derail several minutes later when it passed through the centre of the community.[7] Several buildings and rail cars were destroyed and many people were injured, including some severely, although no fatalities resulted.[7][8]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Stewiacke had a population of 1,557 living in 713 of its 739 total private dwellings, a change of 13.4% from its 2016 population of 1,373. With a land area of 17.62 km2 (6.80 sq mi), it had a population density of 88.4/km2 (228.9/sq mi) in 2021.[12]
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