Bantjes, Rod, “Eigg_Mountain_def.html,” in Eigg Mountain Settlement History, last modified, 14 August 2015 (http://people.stfx.ca/rbantjes/gis/txt/eigg/introduction.html).

 

What is Eigg Mountain? (Eigg Mountain Settlement History)

 

Eigg Mountain is an abandoned settlement area in the Antigonish highlands – a high plateau in the northwest corner of the county.[1]  The underlying geological feature is an ancient outcropping of bedrock resistant to erosion.[2]  For the purposes of this project we have defined “highlands” as anything above 225 meters above sea level.  That area is marked in sage green on the map and lower elevations are marked in grey.  This cutoff fits local thinking since all of the major settlers who are considered part the Eigg Mountain settlement dwelt above this level and the boundary at this level is generally marked by a steep drop-off.  There is a saddle of land in the southwest corner of the map carved by two brooks – one leading north into McAras Brook and the other leading east into the Wrights River.  This is roughly the south-western edge of Eigg Mountain.  South of this divide is Brown’s Mountain.

In settlers’ minds there were distinctions between different settlement areas on the Eigg Mountain Highlands.  Highfield is the settlement area on the northeast side of the McQuarrie Road.  Back Settlement Arisaig is the second range of lots south of the Northumberland Strait accessible from the “Trunk” roads between Arisaig and Eigg Mountain.  Maple Ridge is the slope where the Eigg Mountain Main Road descends from the plateau towards Pleasant Valley in the east.  The boundaries of Maple Ridge have never been clearly defined and may have changed over time.[3]  Powers Brook, also known as Archie’s Brook where it crosses the Eigg Mountain Main road, is as good a dividing line as any.


[1] The term is also used for the highest peak on the mountain, marked with a blue + on the above map.

[2] Metamorphic rock from the Ordovician period including “argillite, slate, quartzites, schists, and some granite and rhyolite.”  D. B. Cann, J. D. Hilchey, Agriculture Canada, and Nova Scotia Dept. of Agriculture and Marketing, Soil Survey of Antigonish County, Nova Scotia (Ottawa; Halifax: Agriculture Canada; Dept. of Agriculture and Marketing, 1978), [1953], 10.

[3] See Lame Angus MacEachern on the ambiguous status of Maple Ridge.