Woolford's Surveys: The Roads from Halifax to Windsor and Truro, 1817-18

The roads from Halifax to Windsor and from Halifax to Truro forked near Fultz's Inn in Sackville. This section of map identifies the road from Windsor, the road to Halifax, many lakes, "Midling good Land," "Rocky and Barren Land," Great Beech Hill, "To high for any Carriage" and "This Road almost level." Fletcher Inn, between miles 18-19, is the only inn identified after leaving Fultz's.

In September 1817, Governor Dalhousie spent a night at Key's Inn on the Truro road (mile 32) before returning to Halifax. He left the inn at daybreak and rode twenty miles to Fultz's at the junction of the Windsor and Truro roads, noting that the ride was "rough & rocky indeed." The countryside was covered with inferior blackened and dead fir trees, devastated by fire. Low-growing brushwood and a pale pink flower called fireweed were the only evidence of surviving plant life. To add to the ruin, winter's strong northwest gales had torn up the roots of many taller trees, which "in this dreadful state of devastation in the whole of these 20 miles are laying." On a later occasion, Dalhousie left Halifax on the morning of 6 June 1819 and spent the night at Key's Inn, reporting then that although the highway was in "good order," fires had devastated the countryside for many miles between Fletcher's Bridge and Key's.

Date: 1817-18

Draughtsman: John Elliott Woolford

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: 15.1