The northern part of Inverness County was settled by French-speaking Acadians in the late 1700s. They had been forced off their lands in the Annapolis Valley area of Nova Scotia by the English. They built thriving and orderly communities in their new home.

The geography of Inverness County had an important effect on these two groups. If you look at a map of Inverness County you will see that it is long and thin. Half the area of the county is taken up by the Cape Breton Highlands. Many of the communities had located between the ocean and the highlands. Cape Breton Island was cut off from Nova Scotia by the Strait of Canso. All this meant that communities in Inverness County were isolated.

This isolation had good points and bad points. The area was rich in fish, farm produce and, later, coal, but it was a problem to get these goods to markets. This is why some of the communities did not grow. But, the isolation meant the language and culture of these groups went unchanged for a long time because there was very little mixing with other groups.

An important event in 1955 ended some of the isolation—the opening of the Canso Causeway. This was important because it had been very hard to travel between Cape Breton Island and the mainland. Even though the Strait of Canso is not very wide, drift ice made it dangerous to cross by ferry much of the year.

One hundred pipers marched across the causeway at the opening. They played the old Scottish tune “The Road to the Isles.” A story is told of an elderly lady who led her family in prayer to mark the importance of the event. At the end of the prayer she added “And thank God for having at last made Canada a part of Cape Breton!”