Welcome to the Big Pond Community Website,
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The Fire Department's
SUMMER Safety Message
Click here to see our 2009 Concert Scehdule
Big Pond is situated along the southern side of the delightful Bras d'Or Lakes, an inland saltwater sea of 450 square miles with a coast line of more than 440 nautical miles. Four major rivers the Baddeck, Middle, Washabuck and Deny's feed the lake, as do a series of natural salt springs. Sailing on the Bras d'Or is exceptional, with numerous coves and natural moorings scattered throughout the basin.
Those who wish to remain securely situated on land can tour the beautiful Bras d'Or shoreline; the beach at Big Pond (directly across from the hall and church) with its modest and soon to be improved, boat ramp, is a popular spot to test the clean, clear, temperate and salty waters of the Bras d'Or Lakes.
In Big Pond you can also expect sightings of various birds including the Bald Eagle. During the summer months well over a hundred varieties of birds can be observed including the boreal chickadee and the spruce grouse. In the winter locals feed the birds and birding is popular in the area year round, permitting excellent photographic opportunities. Wild flowers are plentiful, including the common lupin, lady's slipper and mayflower. The area also contains most of the thirty trees native to Nova Scotia, numbering the white or American elm and two hundred year old hemlocks among them.
The History of the Big Pond
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s thousands of Scots left the Western Isles
and Highlands of Scotland for North America. Between 1800 and 1810 exactly when
we do not know. Some of these immigrants settled in the area now known as Big
Pond. A strong local tradition supported by some documentary evidence in land
petitions holds that the first settler in the area was Roderick MacNeil, who
received his land grant in 1809. It seems, by and large, that the first comers
to the area already had a foothold in the New World on the mainland of Nova
Scotia or in Prince Edward Island before removing to this area. Later they were
joined by the others who came directly from the Old Country when the immigrant
ships began making landfall in Cape Breton. Two settlements developed side by
side here on the south shore of the east bay of the Bras D’or, one forming
around a brook to the east, the other alongside a big pond in the west, and they
in time would grow together to form the community now known as Big Pond. The
first settlers around the brook were MacNeil’s, Roderick MacNeil and his family.
Roderick was known as Ruaridh Breac (anglicized to Rory Breck or Rory Brack) "breac"
in this instance meaning "freckled" and the brook which flowed through the
MacNeil grants and the community which formed around it became known as Brack's
Brook. The western community became known as Big Pond, and in time as Big Pond
Center, and was named after the pond which lies along the lakeshore and extends
eastward from a point directly down from Rita’s Tearoom to a point just beyond
the Big Pond Center stage on the MacIntyre Farm. Various forces, mainly social
and political, caused a gradual breakdown of boundaries between the communities.
The building of the present parish church in the 1890’s and its location near
the boundary line no doubt helped. The disappearance of the local post offices
with the arrival of the rural route mail delivery; the realignment of the
municipal government districts, giving common representation; the amalgamation
of the two school sections and the building of a consolidated school; and the
birth of community wide organizations such as the Community Council and the Fire
Department have virtually completed the unification process but, as one would
expect in Cape Breton there is still a bit of the Brook in some of us and a bit
of the Pond in others.
One of the many attractive characteristics of the Big Pond community is a sense
of place and a sense of history. One of the finest Cape Breton tradition bearers
is Joe Neil MacNeil, who grew up in the Middle Cape area and until recently lived
in Big Pond. For a taste of the depth of his knowledge of his people one must
check out his Tales until Dawn/Sguel gu Latha: the World of a Cape Breton Gaelic
Story-Teller, which offers a rich introduction to Gaelic folktales, proverbs,
anecdotes, expressions, rhymes, superstitions and games. Translated and edited
by John Shaw, who recently took a position with the School of Scottish Studies at
the University of Edinburgh, this substantial introduction into the hidden world
of Gaelic Cape Breton is published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and is
available in hardcover in Gaelic/English and a paperback English only version.
This is not a promotional blurb; it is simply a suggested introduction to the
ancient culture of the people of Big Pond. A number of years ago the community
inserted a plaque on a previously erected cairn to commemorate the early
settlers in the area. It reads:
THA AN CáRN SEO STéIDHICHTE MAR CHUIMHNEAHAN AIR NA GAIDHEIL A BARRAIDH AGUS
IONADAN EILE DE 'N GHáIDHEALTACHD A THUINICH ANNS A’PHóN MHóR AGUS NA CriOCHAN
FAISG AIR LáIMH ANNS AN NAOIDHEAMH LINN DEUG.
THIS CAIRN IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE SCOTTISH GAELS FROM BARRA AND
OTHER AREAS OF THE HIGHLANDS WHO SETTLED IN BIG POND AND VICINITY DURING THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Interest in the past of the people of Big Pond continues. Native sons Jack
MacNeil and M.A. MacPherson continue to search out and attempt to fill in
genealogical gaps. They are particularly interested in hearing from anyone who
can shed some light on the people of St. Andrew’s Channel; Brack’s Brook both
the Front and Rear settlements; Glengarry Road to the Crossroads; east from the
Crossroads to the MacIntyre grant at the Mineral Spring; West from the
Crossroads through Glengarry to the Loch Lomond Road; north on the Loch Lomond
Road to Route 4; Westward through Big Pond Centre, Middle Cape, Irish Vale and
Irish Cove to the Richmond County line including the back settlements at Big
Pond Centre and Irish Cove. Jack MacNeil can be contacted at Big Pond, RR#1,
East Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada B0H 1H0 and M.A. can be emailed at
mamacphers@gmail.com
A history of the Community Hall/Fire Department by Pictures. This page has
pictures
of the Old Fire hall and some of the construction of the New Hall as well as a
few of the first events held. Click
HERE for some found memories to many in the
community.
