New Brunswick Forest Products Industry National Historic Event
Edmunston, New Brunswick
Lumbermen, Nashwaak River, NB, 1871
© Musée McCord Museum, William Notman, I-64950
Address :
Edmunston, New Brunswick
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1999-10-28
Other Name(s):
-
New Brunswick Forest Products Industry
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
1994-SUA, 1997-OB-01, 1999-SUA
Importance:
Associated with shipbuilding in the 19th-century, then the pulp and paper industry in the 20th century
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: East side of Bernard Valcourt pedestrian bridge, Edmunston, New Brunswick
Drawing on vast timber resources and a complex river system, New Brunswickers created a forest industry that dominated the provincial economy for more than two centuries. The export of ship masts in the 1780s gave way to the square timber trade in the early 1800s. After 1850, the industry largely depended on mill-produced rough-sawn lumber, and in the 1920s was again transformed by the development of large-scale pulp and paper mills. The triumphs and tragedies of this industry have been captured in poetry, painting, and song, expressing an enduring part of the province's identity.