Kingsport Wharf

Kingsport Wharf

The Kingsport Wharf, circa 1960, showing the second DAR freight shed, now boarded up in the last days of the subdivision.

Built in several stages, this pile and cribwork wooden wharf at Kingsport reached 850 feet in length by 1912. It was 40 feet wide for its entire length and 22 feet high at the end.(1) The wharf was owned by the Canadian federal government but leased by the DAR for a spur line which ran the entire length of the wharf along the east side. Kingsport trains used the wharf daily in the summertime to connect to DAR steamers beginning with the SS Evangeline from 1893 to 1903; the SS Prince Albert from 1904 to 1925 and the MV Kipawo from 1926 to 1940.(2) Freight was also shipped to and from coastal schooners and regular visits by large ocean freighters. Boxcars and flatcars were often at the very end of the wharf to deliver or receive specific freight when ships were expected, but locomotives were not allowed on the last 150 feet of the wharf.(3) At one time a siding was located on the wharf, but it was removed by 1911.

The wharf spur ended beside the wharf lighthouses at the tip. A wooden post jib crane located halfway along the wharf was used to load and unload railway cars. A dismounted DAR boxcar first served as a freight shed. It was replaced in 1926 by a combined DAR freight shed and passenger shelter built for the introduction of the MV Kipawo. The shed and lighthouse were destroyed in a fire in 1947. A second DAR shed was built on the wharf after the fire. When rail service ended in 1961, the freight shed was moved into the village and converted to a cottage. The wharf continued to be used by small fishing craft until the early 1970s but gradually collapsed. In 2003, the stub of the wharf was stabilized as a lookoff and boat ramp and the remaining ruins were demolished.(4)

References

(1) Plan of Wharf, Public Works Canada, June 12, 1942, Leon Barron Collection.

(2) Canning Library and Heritage Centre, Historical Calendar 2000, "March"

(3) "Timetable No. 77 For Employees June 21, 1931", Dominion Atlantic Railway, p. 3

(4) Announcement of Wharf reconstruction ACOA Press Release, March 4, 2003

• A History of Kingsport, Nova Scotia by Cora Atkinson, Kingsport Community Association
• Nova Scotia Museum photograph of wharf from beach, circa 1960, (M76.27.13) MP10.196.13, 20015.tif