Chignecto Bay | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Chignecto Bay

Chignecto Bay, northeastern arm of the Bay of Fundy. The name comes from the Indigenous word sigunikt, usually said to mean "foot cloth," perhaps from a Mi'kmaq legend. The area around present-day Sackville, NB, was first settled by Acadians in 1671 and by Yorkshire Methodists about 100 years later.

Chignecto Bay, northeastern arm of the Bay of Fundy. The name comes from the Indigenous word sigunikt, usually said to mean "foot cloth," perhaps from a Mi'kmaq legend. The area around present-day Sackville, NB, was first settled by Acadians in 1671 and by Yorkshire Methodists about 100 years later. The Petitcodiac River flows into the northwestern fork of the bay. A canal across the narrow (27 km) Chignecto Isthmus between the bay and Northumberland Strait was proposed as early as 1686. Henry Ketchum, a Fredericton engineer, built part of a proposed railway across the isthmus in the 1890s and interest in a canal was revived by a feasibility study in 1958. Fundy National Park is located on the northern (NB) coast of the bay.

See also Tantramar Marsh.

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