Grand Manan is an island in the Bay of Fundy, within Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. It is 15km from the American town of Lubec, Maine and 32km from the Canadian town of Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.
Grand Manan is also the name for the village that incorporates the main island and several nearby smaller islands. White Head Island and Machias Seal Island are within Grand Manan Parish but are not part of the village.
History
Although it was "likely" spotted by Sebastian Cabot in 1498 and Gaspar Cortereal in 1501, it was Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes who charted the area around 1520, but it first appeared cartographically on Diogo Homem's 1558 map. French merchant-explorer Étienne Bellenger visited the area in January 1583. In 1606 Samuel de Champlain sheltered on nearby White Head Island and produced a map calling the island "Manthane", which later changed to "Menane" or "Menasne". The word "Manan" believed to be a corruption of meaning "the island", from the Wolastoqiyik, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot First Nations. It was also previously known as Great St. Mary's Island.
In 1693, the island was granted to Paul D'Ailleboust, Sieur de Périgny as part of New France. D'Ailleboust did not take possession of it, and it reverted to the French Crown, in whose possession it remained until 1713, when it was traded to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht.
In Spring 1763, Messrs. Vose and Miller became the first to try and settle on Grand Manan, after fleeing Yarmouth Harbour with their families to avoid arrest after being accused of plundering a shipwreck - but departed after only a year.
A 1773 minute of the Nova Scotia Council "reserved" the island of Grand Manan to Lord William Campbell, who had visited it in 1767 but made no efforts to settle it. Joel Bonny and James, Abiel and Moses Sprague moved from Machias to Grand Manan in 1773, but left after a year when resident natives ordered them off. Joel Bonny returned in 1779 and paid the natives $10 and a cow to winter on the island where his wife gave birth to a son, before they departed the following year.Gilman, John D. "Canned: A History of the Sardine Industry", 2001
In 1784, Moses Gerrish gathered a group of settlers on an area of Grand Manan he called Ross Island, in honour of settler Thomas Ross, and formed the first permanent settlement. During the American Revolution, just off the island there were many naval battles between American privateers and British shipping.
Because of the Treaty of Paris (1783), the U.S. considered Grand Manan to be its possession due to the island's proximity to Maine. The Jay Treaty of 1794 did not solve the ownership claims of Grand Manan and the Passamaquoddy Bay islands. Following the Treaty of Ghent, a commission was set up between Britain and the U.S. to settle in 1817 the sovereignty of every islands in the area: Britain obtained title of Grand Manan, while surrendering its sovereignty claims over Eastport on Moose, Frederick and Dudley islands in nearby Cobscook Bay.
From 1812 to 1814, the Bay of Fundy was infested with privateers who raided and plundered villages. In 1814, the schooner George was purchased at prize-auction and intentionally loaded with specifically-British goods at Saint John, so John Tappen could have captains William Sebor and Henry Dekoven fraudulently portray their privateer ship Fly'''s "capture" of George and seizure of those insured goods when it was docked at Long Island Harbour, Grand Manan. In 1831 the island's first lighthouse, Gannet Rock Lighthouse, was built on a rocky islet south of Grand Manan, to guide shipping en route to Saint John.
This period was also marked by a number of shipwrecks off the island's rocky, cliff-lined coast. In 1857, the ship , was driven into the cliffs at the northern end of the island by hurricane-force winds to great loss of life. Another wreck was the Nova Scotian barque , which was bound for Saint John, from Wales when it wrecked on the White Ledge off Grand Manan on September 14, 1878.
By 1851, the island population numbered almost 1,200 permanent inhabitants, most working in fishing. Two years earlier, Moses Henry Perley studied the fisheries and noted "the people of Grand Manan enjoy perfect free trade. No duties whatever are paid by the inhabitants of Grand Manan, in fact there is no person there authorized to receive duties. The inhabitants take their fish to Eastport or Lubec, and there sell them at low prices takin in return such articles as they need for home consumption...as there is a perfectly good understanding with the fishermen of Maine.".Wentworth, Ernest & Richard Wilbur, "Silver Harvest", 1986
In 1874, foxes were introduced to the island "unaccountably", which drove gull and tern populations away.
By 1884, Grand Manan became the largest supplier of smoked herring in the world. By 1920, it produced one million boxes—or twenty thousand tons—of smoked herring.
In the late Victorian era, tourists began visiting the island, including author Willa Cather and painters Alfred Thompson Bricher and John James Audubon. Spencer Fullerton Baird carried out a 19th century archaeological study of the island.Shaw, Christopher, "A GIS Approach to Ancestral Wabanaki Canoe Routes and Travel Times", 2016 The Greene brothers, dubbed the "Dark Harbour Hermits", harvested dulse while entertaining hundreds of visitors annually.
In December 1941, the S.S. Hada County hit a shoal and sank off Grand Manan.
In 1967, the Grand Manan Museum was opened, with exhibits including the large lens from the Gannett Rock Lighthouse and taxidermied bird specimens from Allan Moses.
2006 Grand Manan riot: Approximately fifty Islanders engaged in vigilante justice in removing a drug dealer from the island as five, "whom many considered heroes", were criminally charged. NDP candidate Andrew Graham noted "I don't know what it's like to see what crack [cocaine] is doing to your children. It was a pressure cooker and they reached their limit." Investing in the island in the aftermath of the violence which had drawn international headlines, the government built a youth centre and outdoor skating rink.
History of smuggling Southwestern New Brunswick smugglers in the late 18th century were "the overwhelming majority of the local political machinery, including the judiciary" — and a 1796 seizure found contraband tied to the "leading figures and magistrates" of Campobello, Grand Manan and Indian Island.
In 1797, a case of self-defence homicide landed in court when John Robinson, William Stewart, Hugh Lamey and Sergeant Stewart were stationed to guard seized contraband goods at Grand Manan, when a group boarded intent on recovering the cargo and a fracas ensued in which William Newcomb was killed.
In 1831 Secretary of the Board of Trade John MacGregor stated his disapproval of Grand Manan, noting "mostly from Maine and resemble Americans in attitude. They have a reputation for being scheming and overreaching...a great smuggling area.", and dismissing Campobello as "another smuggling notch".DENOMINATIONALISM IN A LOYALIST COUNTY: "' A SOCIAL HISTORY OF CHARLOTTE 1783 - 1940· . by Thomas William Acheson B.A., U.N.B., 1962Macgregor, John. "Britisli America, Vol. II, Edinburgh : William Blackwood, 1832. ", pp250-252 In 1898, it was noted that the island's high western cliffs and recent American tariffs kept Grand Manan a key smuggling point.
In 1936, a new focus began on smuggling at Petit Manan and Grand Manan, leading to a shifted RCMP focus.
History of religion
In 1820, it was noted the population of 600 on Grand Manan were "totally destitute of religious instruction", and Anglican rector Jerome Alley from St. Andrews set about building a church though it took 12 years to find a rector for it, and John Dunn was not well-liked when he did arrive. In 1838, St. Paul's Anglican Church was the victim of an attempted arson, and in 1839 it was destroyed by arson with an effigy holding a paper that showed "hostility toward the Bishop...the rector...and four other persons of this county"; the government offered a reward for information and many accused Wilfred Fisher or those near him as having had a feud with the rector. It was rebuilt within a year.
Christians' Temple was built in Woodward's Cove by the Baptist minister Mr. Cook, but passed into ownership of Joseph Lakeman who was converted to the Disciples of Christ denomination by the visiting Elder George Garraty, but was later converted to a Latter Day Saints temple after Lakeman declared himself a Mormon. A missionary had been preaching "alongside a Mormon elder" on Grand Manan circa 1870.s:Rambles in Mount Desert: with Sketches of Travel on the New England Coast, From Isles of Shoals to Grand Menan, pg274, etc At its height, it had 45 practising Mormons on the island. It later burned down, and was not rebuilt.Elaine Ingalls Hogg, Historic Grand Manan: Images of Our Past (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus Publishing Limited, 2007), 19.
Island community norms "officially prohibited drinking". However, before a provincial liquor store opened in 1972 islanders could legally order liquor and have it delivered on the ferry, and alcohol smuggling was common. In 1975, an outsider from Toronto was disparaged on the island for purchasing the Marathon Hotel and applying for a liquor license angering religious leaders who had blocked liquor licenses on the island five times previously, with local MLA James Tucker noting "It's an atrocity...I'm only taking the side of 95% of the island opposition". A year later, the Marathon's license was revoked - although reinstated in 1982 on condition it serve only hotel patrons and not general island population. During these years, it was also uncommon to find retailers willing to sell cigarettes or cosmetic make-up. In 1995, an outsider purchased a video rental store which transformed into a pizza parlour and then into a pool hall within two years - and received a liquor license, again angering local islanders. By the time of the third liquor license, for a restaurant in North Head, in 2003 - there was no community outrage and alcohol had become normalised. However the 2004 death of three youths from a roadside crash led to concern and intervention for a perceived "escalating alcohol and drug problem".
With the arrival of Baptist revivalists, Anglicanism faltered and "religion became almost their only entertainment - and remains so."Scherman, Katharine. "Two Islands: Grand Manan and Sanibel", 1971. Chapter 3 and elsewhere. In the 19th century, bursts of religious fervour would see dancing forbidden and amusements frowned upon on Grand Manan for a time, although evangelical missionary zeal was uncommon.s:Grim Grand Manan Fishermen adhered to a "strict "no-Sunday" rule" which prohibited checking lobster traps or harvesting herring from weirs on Sundays. This community norm persisted until at least 2000 in the community of Seal Cove.
As of 2008 Grand Manan and neighbouring White Head Island were served by fifteen churches. Of these, three were Wesleyan and three Baptist. In 2021 the three Wesleyan churches merged into the Lighthouse Church. There are also two Anglican churches dating back to Loyalist days, three Baptist, and a small Catholic church. As of 2021, 1% of Grand Manan identified as following a religion other than Christianity.
Geography and Geology
Grand Manan Island is the largest of the Fundy Islands, while the Grand Manan archipelago contains other islands such as White Head Island, Ross, Cheney Island, the Wood Islands and dozens of surrounding shoaling rocks.
Grand Manan is long and has a maximum width of with an area of . The Western side of the main island and the smaller islands form numerous passages, coves, and rocky reefs. The vast majority of Grand Manan residents live on the eastern side of the island. Due to limited access, cliffs and high winds, the western side of the island is not residentially developed.