Truro is a
town in central
Nova Scotia,
Canada. Truro is the
shire town of
Colchester County and is located on the south side of the
Salmon River floodplain, close to the river's mouth at the eastern end of
Cobequid Bay.
The
Mi'kmaq name for the Truro area, "Wagobagitik" meaning "end of the water's flow", was shortened by
Acadian settlers to "Cobequid" who arrived in the area in the early 1700s and by 1727 had established a small village near the present downtown site of Truro known as "Vil Bois Brule" (Village in the burnt wood). Many Acadians in this region left in the
Acadian Exodus which preceded the
Expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, the town was resettled in 1761 by
Presbyterians of predominantly
Ulster Scottish origin who came from
Ireland via
New England. It is named after the city of
Truro in
Cornwall, United Kingdom.
Truro, Nova Scotia's John W. (Jack) Fraser "Chief of Police" 1888 - 1953 commemorated in a tree sculpture
Originally a small farming community, the construction of the
Nova Scotia Railway between
Halifax, and
Pictou in 1858 caused the municipality to experience a fast rate of growth which increased even more when the railway connected to central Canada in 1872 and became the
Intercolonial Railway. The Intercolonial, which later became the
Canadian National Railway built a large
roundhouse and rail yard in Truro. Further rail links to Cape Breton and to the Annapolis Valley through the
Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1905 made the town even more a transportation hub for Nova Scotia. The railway also attracted industries such as the Truro Woolen Mills in 1870 (which later became
Stanfield's) and provincial institutions like the provincial Normal School (later the
Nova Scotia Teachers College) and the
Nova Scotia Agricultural College. The town officially incorporated in 1875. Many figures from the town's past are featured in over 40 tree sculptures which were carved in tree trunks after Truro lost most of its Elm trees to
Dutch Elm Disease in the 1990s. The history of the town and surrounding county is preserved at the Colchester Historical Museum (c.1900-1901), which is designated under the provincial
Heritage Property Act.
Truro is known as the
Hub of Nova Scotia as it is located at the junction between the Canadian National Railway, running between
Halifax and
Montreal, and the
Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway, running between Truro and
Sydney. Until the 1980s, Truro also hosted a junction between the Canadian National and
Canadian Pacific Railway's former Dominion Atlantic Railway line running through
Windsor and down the
Annapolis Valley to
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
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