A view of matchless beauty greets the eye, when standing on the higher ground above the business section of the town and looking eastward, north and south across the waters of the harbour and onward to the shores beyond.

   Terrace like the hillsides rise, and breaking through their vales of   green, the winding East, Middle and West Rivers may be seen, which in their onward sweep from distant hills beyond, meet to form the harbour, which with the island at its mouth, has made a land locked sea where some five hundred vessels may be safely moored.

   The country round about was originally inhabited by the Micmac Indians, a tribe of the powerful Algonquin nation.  During the years while the French ruled in Canada, a number of settlements had been made in the County, which were, however, abandoned when the Acadians were expelled
from Nova Scotia in 1755.

    While the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, by which all Canada became an English possession, directed the attention of prospective immigrants to the agricultural and forest wealth of the County, it was not until June 10^th, 1767, that the first English settlers, comprising six families of thirty persons, arrived in the Brig “Hope” from Philadelphia.  They disembarked near the Town Gut, on land now known as Brown’s Point, in the vicinity of which they had been granted about two hundred thousand acres of land.  Like nearly all early settlers of America they suffered many privations.  While the land was rich in timber the latter had to be felled before the soil could be tilled.  Although discouraged by the prospect before them, they set to work to build rude dwellings.  A road was cut to Truro and settlements further south, which had been established about ten years before.  To support themselves they cultivated small patches of land for vegetables and grain, and engaged in hunting and fishing.  By the close of the year 1769 the community included 84 white persons who owned 64 bushels of wheat, 60 of oats, 8 of barley, 6 of rye, 6 of peas and some flax, besides 6 horses, 16 cows, 16 oxen, 16 young cattle, 37 sheep, 10 swine, as well as a small vessel, a fishing boat, and a saw mill.

    Three years later, in September, 1773, the “Hector” arrived from Scotland with 189 souls.  In 1775 thirteen more families, mostly farmers, came from Scotland to join their countrymen, whose numbers were further increased by the arrival of disbanded British soldiers, nearly all Scottish, in 1783, and to whom the British Government following the close of the revolutionary war, had allotted large tracts of land in the county and elsewhere in the province.  Slowly the population increased.  By 1775 effective Municipal Government had been established, and the centre of the town was moved further down the harbour following the escheatment of the McNutt Grant to the Crown.  In 1786 the county had 90 families, the number of whom had grown to 178 in 1793, the majority living in the village of Pictou.  The first years of the century brought an increasing number of emigrants, principally from the Highlands of Scotland.  From 1801-1805 as many as 1300 souls landed at Pictou in a single season, the greater number of whom settled on farms in Pictou and adjoining counties.  As a result of this emigration from Scotland, the county became predominantly Scottish in character, a distinction it enjoys to this day, as more than 27,000 of its 36,000 inhabitants are the descendants of this thrifty and intellectually forceful race, who have played and play today a conspicuous role in the business, educational, intellectual and political life of the Province and the Dominion.

    The new settlers gradually took up land along the East, Middle and West Rivers, and also along the Strait shore.  The land was rich in forests of pine and other wood, and lumbering became one of the chief industries of the county.  In 1774 the first cargo of square timber was shipped from Pictou to Great Britain.  In 1803 some 50 vessels were loaded at its wharves, and it is estimated that the exports from 1800 to 1820 amounted to $500,000 yearly, the greatest part of which consisted of lumber.

    In 1828 Pictou became a free port, and following the repeal of other trade restrictions which had hitherto been imposed on the colonies by the mother country, its trade rapidly overcame the panic of 1825-26.  An era of ship construction began, which continued for a period of 45 years only to decline when the wooden ships were replaced by those made of iron.

    With the acquisition of all the reserve mines in the province, by the General Mining Association in 1827, coal mining assumed large proportions.  In 1836 the company constructed a railroad six miles long from the mines to a point not far from Pictou Landing, opposite the Town of Pictou.  It was the first steel railway in Canada, and carried the coal to the Loading Ground, where it was loaded into ocean going vessels.  The organization of the Hope Iron Works in 1872 at New Glasgow, eight miles distant, also added to the transportation growth of the town, while at the same time smaller industries grew up within its own limits.  In 1840 G. J. Hamilton & Sons, Limited, has grown to one of the largest in the eastern provinces.  At Lyons Brook, three miles distant, John Logan established a tannery in 1848, which with the years has become one of the largest sole leather factories in the Dominion.  The Pictou Foundry and Machine Company, whose foundation was laid as early as 1856 still does a flourishing business.  The town has an active ship repairing plant, a large milling plant, besides saw mills and a number of smaller industries.

    In 1833 the “Royal William” left Pictou Harbour for England, the first steamer propelled by steam, generated from coal mined in the county, to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  At Pictou was established the “Colonial Patriot”, the second native newspaper in Canada.  From this town in 1846 Rev. John Geddie, a Presbyterian clergyman, went to the New Hebrides, the first missionary from all the British Colonies.  The first Presbyterian institution, for higher education in Nova Scotia, was founded here, and called Pictou Academy, while the controversy which was waged over it made it the center of the movement for Provincial responsible Government.  The town has the largest harbour along the northern shores of Nova Scotia.  It has fine railway transportation service and with the completion of the railway bridge across the harbour, it is bound to become a railway center of great importance.  It has an efficient water and electric lighting service.  It has attractive streets, flanked by well kept gardened homes.  It has splendid schools and large churches.  It has a good theatre.  Its maritime location and cool summer climate, with its situation at the head of deep water navigation, makes it not only one of the most delightful summer towns, but also one of the best distribution points in the Maritime Provinces.