For ten years now I have been regular wanderer on Rissers Beach. On most of those outings, I have always wondered about the remnants of what appears to have been a wooden structure at the west end of the beach.
In the hope of learning more, I placed posting on a local
community Facebook page, and received back some good responses.
It seems in days of old the nearby community of Petite Rivière had some thriving businesses that depended upon transportation links via the sea. With reference to the satellite image below ~ Often those links were impeded by a sand bank that blocked off the entrance at Mad Brook ~ on the image I have shown (yellow highlight circle) the sand bar as it is now.
At times when the sand bar was in place, created by certain
high tides and wind directions, the ships that required access to Petite Rivière
had to anchor off shore, and then rely upon smaller vessels to transport goods
back and forth.
To solve this ongoing problem, in 1906 at a cost of $10,000, a
breakwater was constructed, which kept thirty local men employed for a few months. The
position of the breakwater is shown in the satellite image by the straight yellow
line
The following image is an extract taken from the Bridgewater Bulletin
dated 17 July 1906, which explains the issue, together with the proposed
solution by the construction of the breakwater.
Below are two photos which shows the 1750' long breakwater in place, the
first is from the 1950’s, and the other not long after its completion, around
1906/07 ~ I would like to thank locals Paul Harmon and Kevin Baker for the
information and old photos.
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| Photo taken at the end of the breakwater looking towards Rissers Beach |
In addition to looking into all that, this afternoon I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful outing at Rissers in glorious sunshine ...
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