Displayed out front of the museum as teasers are several artefacts, including an old mill stone, a small cannon, a pair of old ship's anchors and a davit and bollards from a ship. The ship was the three-masted schooner
City of New York which foundered on Chebogue Point, Yarmouth County, N.S. in 1952. Formerly the
Samson, this vessel is believed by many to be the "mystery ship" sighted in the vicinity of the
Titanic when she sank in 1912.
This millstone stands partially buried on the front lawn of the museum. We have no concrete information on its history. However, it would be nice to think that it is the millstone from the grist mill of Sealed Landers, Yarmouth’s first English-speaking settler who, in 1761, set up the first grist mill in the area. Unfortunately, we know that it is not. Oh well...
Purchased by the Yarmouth County Historical Society in 1967, the building became the Yarmouth County Museum in 1969. The museum itself was founded in 1958. It is a noteworthy museum for its collections, not the least of which are:
• the third largest collection of ship paintings in Canada
• the third largest costume collection in Nova Scotia
• the largest community archives in Nova Scotia
A nice
Virtual Tour is available at their website. The museum is also the repository of the Yarmouth County Archives.