Partridge Island, New Brunswick
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Partridge Island, off the coast of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, is a national and provincial historic site that sits in the blowing winds of Saint John's Inner Harbour. It was the first quarantine station in Canada, being used as a quarantine station as early as 1785, it received its largest influx of immigrants in the 1840s during the Great Famine in Ireland (the "Potato Famine"). A shortage of potatoes occurred because of potato blight striking the staple crop, causing millions to starve to death or otherwise emigrate, mainly to North America and Canada
[edit] History
The Island's story begins centuries ago, in the time of the Indians. To them it was "Quak'm'kagan'ik" meaning "a piece cut out", a reference to their belief that the Island was created when their great hero-god Glooscap smashed the dam Big Beaver had built at the Reversing falls and a piece of the dam was swept in the rush of water to the mouth of the harbour where it came to rest to form the Island. Following the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783 and the formation of the City of Saint John, the need for a lighthouse to aid shipping was realized. Such a light was erected on Partridge Island and came into existence In 1791, being only the third to have been built in Canada. Soon after, a signal station was also located on the Island and it was used for many years to alert the City to vessels approaching up the Bay.
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