Storied Shores

For centuries the Mi’kmaq, and later the early European explorers and settlers, shortened their journies between the Bras d’Or lake and the Atlantic Ocean by means of narrow isthmus at St. Peter’s. The portage area and the surrounding shores and waterways of Cape Breton were sites of early and prolonged interaction between the French and the Mi’kmaq during a time when dreams of expansion and empire among European nations, met head on with the realities of North America’s aboriginal peoples.