yarmouth

Yarmouth

town, seat of Yarmouth county, southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies at the Atlantic entrance to the Bay of Fundy, 210 miles (339 km) by road west of Halifax. The site may well have been visited by Leif Eriksson and his Norsemen in 1007; the Runic Stone (found at nearby Overton in 1812), said to be carved by Eriksson, is in the Yarmouth County Historical Society Museum. The community was founded in 1761 by New England settlers. Some Acadians (banished about 1755) returned in 1767, and the population was increased in 1785 by the arrival of loyalists. The town, once a noted shipbuilding centre, was probably named for Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It is now a port and car-ferry terminal for services to Bar Harbor and Portland, Maine, U.S. Yarmouth Light, at the mouth of its harbour, is a familiar landmark. The town's economic activities focus on industrial fabrics, cotton duck, and dairy and fish products; pulpwood, fish, lumber, fruit, and cattle are exported. Inc. 1890. Pop. (2006) 7,162.

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