Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada (Nepisiguit) (Nipisiguit)
Bathurst

The City of Bathurst, New Brunswick is situated on Bathurst Harbour, an estuary where the Nepisiguit River meets Chaleur Bay. Bathurst is the administrative, commercial, educational and cultural hub of northeastern New Brunswick. The city is part of the Chaleur Regional Service Commission along with the neighbouring municipalities of Beresford, Nigadoo, Petit-Rocher, Pointe-Verte and Belledune, and sits adjacent to the Pabineau First Nation...

The first permanent settlers on Chaleur Bay were the Récollet missionaries who arrived from France in 1619. Bathurst was officially founded by then-governor of Acadia, Nicolas Denys in 1652. The site, home to Denys’ headquarters, was abandoned after his death in 1688. The next group to settle the area was dispossessed Acadians, who arrived from what is now Nova Scotia, in 1755. (See History of Acadia.)

By 1768 English merchant Commodore George Walker had established a successful fur trading, fishing and shipbuilding enterprise, and oversaw trade activity across the entire Chaleur Bay. During his time at what was then called Nepisiguit, George Walker served as justice of the peace for surrounding settlers. Walker performed such duties as marriages and burials, and brokered disputes amongst the Mi'kmaq, Acadians and British. Commodore Walker died suddenly in England in 1777. In 1778, during the American Revolution, American privateers destroyed his fortified Nepisiguit outpost.

Bathurst Iron Mines was in operation from 1907 to 1913, but pulp and paper dominated the local economy during the opening decades of the 20th century. Bathurst Power and Paper Company opened the city’s first pulp mill in 1914. It quickly became Bathurst’s largest employer and brought prosperity to the entire region. The mill was expanded to make paper in 1923. In 1968, it was taken over by Consolidated-Bathurst Ltd. The mill operated under this name and ownership until Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. purchased it in 1989. The mill employed hundreds of people when it ceased operations in 2005.

By the 1960s, base metal mining had overtaken pulp and paper as the driving force of the local economy. Significant lead and zinc deposits discovered in 1953 in the surrounding region further spurred the city's development. The Brunswick Mine began production in 1964 and quickly became one of the largest, and most profitable, of its kind in the world. It was also northern New Brunswick’s largest private sector employer. When it closed 50 years later in 2013, it had employed over 7,000 people, including 700 during its final year...

The Canadian Encyclopedia

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