A question of staying or leaving : rural decline in Guysborough County, 1881-1931

Abstract

As the age of industrialization dawned in the Maritime Provinces in the late nineteenth century many rural districts of the region found themselves facing new challenges. Particularly hard hit were areas where industrial centres and rail transportation did not develop and the economy remained contingent on primary resources such as fishing, farming and forestry. Abandoned houses, idle farmlands, closing schools and declining population became part of life for many rural Maritimers. Because of the diversity of the region—geographic, ethnic, religious, and economic—not all parts of the Maritimes were affected in the same way. The result was the lack of a completely united response in attempting to reverse the trend of rural decline. In Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, where decline was especially dramatic, diversity played an important role in rural decline. In the late nineteenth century hundreds of individuals from the county’s inland farm districts chose to emigrate to growing local Maritime industrial towns and developing centres outside the region. Unlike many other farming districts of Nova Scotia, agriculture in Guysborough County by the 1890s had begun to contract. Poor rail links to the county meant that farm produce could not be transported efficiently to markets. In contrast, for fishing communities on the shore the late nineteenth century was generally a time of greater economic stability as the lobster and fresh fish industries expanded. It was not until after the first decade of the twentieth century that outmigration on the shore began to reach serious levels. Worsened economic conditions by the 1920s combined with greater outmigration to spark an organized response in Guysborough County to stem the tide of decline. The movement, however, lacked unity and most leadership came from the coastal areas. The farm districts could not adequately respond because, unlike the fishing communities, they had suffered almost five decades of continuous outmigration. Many of the potential leaders of the inland districts were drawn away, leaving the area unprepared to lead an organized response against decline. This lack of a united voice in opposing decline resulted in a failure to implement successful alternatives in Guysborough County.