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Stillwater Lake
Stillwater Lake, Nova Scotia
Mile 19.00 from Windsor Junction on the Halifax Subdivision (Mile 34.81 from Halifax)
Elevation: 430 feet above sea level
- Next Station East: Claremont's
- Next Station West: Stillwater
Facilities & Features
- Flag stop
Description & History
This area just east of Stillwater was the site of several 19th century sawmills, connected to the DAR mainline by short spurs and sidings such as Smith's Siding. Five Mile Lake, to the south of the DAR line, was dammed in 1922[1] to provide a water supply for the St. Margaret's Bay Hydro Power Plant.[2] This made the lake much larger and brought the shoreline of the lake right beside the railway a half mile east of the Stillwater station. The new lakefront location beside the rails created easy access for boaters and fishermen resulted in a small seasonal recreation community beside the tracks know as "Stillwater Lake". It first appears on DAR timetables in 1929.[3]
Railway employees could travel to Stillwater Lake for free with their railway passes so Stillwater Lake became a popular location for DAR families to build fishing cabins[4] some built with old caboose and passenger stoves and fitted with surplus passenger car windows.[5]
Gallery
Detail from A. F. Church Map, "Hants County", showing the route of the Nova Scotia Railway through Ellershouse, Stillwater and the area that became Stillwater Lake with its spurs for saw mills, 1869.
Topographic map from Stillwater to Windsor Junction circa 1956.
References & Footnotes
- ↑ Gillian Fielding, "Barriers to Fish Passage in Nova Scotia: The Evolution of Water Control Barriers in Nova Scotia’s Watershed", table A.1, page 63
- ↑ "St.Margarets Bay Hydro-electricity Plants, Green Renewable Power Since 1922", St. Margarets Bay.com
- ↑ 1929 Dominion Atlantic Railway Passenger Time Table - June 21, 1929
- ↑ Kentville Advertiser references: Conductor William Lightie cutting & storing ice at his cottage for summer use - Feb. 18, 1937, Conductors and pensioners get good fishing - May 27, 1937, More fishing noted at Stillwater by trainman & engineer June 3, 1937, Conductor William Lightie & wife to Stillwater to reopen camp - May 5, 1938, William & Mrs Young, Kingsport, vacation with Dan McIvor at Stillwater - May 26, 1938
- ↑ Oral History related to Dan Conlin by Leon Barron
