The Days of Red Houses

Place Names Inverness County Port Hood Inverness Mabou Portugal Louisbourg New England Europe Canada Point Tupper Nova Scotia Chéticamp

The southern part of Inverness County, around Port Hood, Inverness and Mabou, has a colourful history. The people were colourful and so were the houses. In fact, at one time there were 84 red houses built side by side! The reason for all this was coal mining.

Of course, the first people to live in the area were the Mi’kmaq. Their ancestors came to Cape Breton Island about 10,000 years ago. The first Europeans to take an interest in the area were fishermen from Portugal in the 1700s. They dried their catches of codfish on the Inverness County shores. For a while, French workers cut stone from Inverness County to build the fortress at Louisbourg. They called the area Juste Au Corps, meaning “close to the body.”

In 1786, Captain David Smith and his family settled in the Port Hood area. They were from New England and had taken England’s side in the American War of Independence. When the Americans won the war, the Smiths were no longer welcome in New England.