New Germany

If you travel 20 minutes beyond Bridgewater northward on Highway 10, you'll eventually come across what is a unique sight in Lunenburg County, perhaps in all the province.

On utility poles and homes throughout this area, you will notice, time after time, wooden artworks proudly and prominently displaying the Canadian flag.

It's this sense of patriotism that makes New Germany remarkable and makes the annual Canada Day festivities in this community especially enthralling.

It is rather ironic, of course, that New Germany would have such a strong sense of patriotism, as the community was named in honour of the homeland of the area's first European settlers.

German names such as Fiendel (now Feindel) and Varner were among those to first populate the rolling hillsides of what would become New Germany in the early years of the 19th century.

A careful eye can still spot the remnants of what once was an active lumbering industry in and around New Germany, which really served as a focal point of activity on the LaHave River system above Bridgewater.