An Albert County wharf's link to the beginnings of public broadcasting in Canada

It may be a long and circuitous route, but a decaying wooden wharf in Albert County inevitably leads to the founding of Canada’s public broadcaster.

The wharf at Hopewell Cape was part of one of the many shipyards along the coast of Albert County in southeastern New Brunswick.

The wharfs were integral not only to the local community, but also to transportation in the area, according to historian James Upham.

“All of these wharfs that you see along the river, this was at one point or another one of the main ways to get into a town,” Upham said. 

“This was how people came to town from either just over in Dorchester or way over in Europe.”

Travel at the time, when roads were not as well established in the province, was often done by boat.

This leads to an interesting rethinking of the community of Hopewell Cape. The community is about three kilometres from Dorchester Cape via boat along the Petitcodiac River, but about 80 kilometres by road.

“For most of the time that people have lived here, Dorchester is a hop, skip and a jump over there,” Upham said.

While wharfs were important for the transportation of goods and people throughout New Brunswick, this wharf was also integral to the economy of the area.

Dawne McLean, president of the Albert County Historical Society, said the Peticodiac River shoreline from Salisbury to Point Wolf, which is now part of Fundy National Park, was prime shipbuilding territory.

She said that officially, more than 330 wooden ships were built in the area, but a truly accurate number is impossible to determine.

“The exact number is not known because some ships didn't get registered because some, they might build a ship, just a smaller ship, and they didn't bother going to Saint John to get it registered,” McLean said.

The shipbuilding industry had a symbiotic relationship with several other industries in the area, including lumber, agriculture and even energy, with the mining of albertite, a coal-like substance that can be refined to oil and is named after Albert County.

Ships would be built, loaded up, sailed away and sold off, McLean said.