Historic Dartmouth is a fascinating glimpse of this charming city's social, economic, and cultural life over the last two centuries. From its beginning as a settlement of British immigrants on an Aboriginal campsite in 1750, Dartmouth's growth was uncertain and sporadic. In 1759, it was used as a temporary billet for Wolfe's troops before his attack on Quebec; in 1785 it was, briefly, the home of the influential Nantucket Whaling Company; and in 1826 the building of the Shubenacadie Canal gave it new life until the coming of the railway in 1870. Finally incorporated as a town in 1873, Dartmouth's location on the east side of Chebucto Harbour, and its thousands of inland lakes and rivers, made it an ideal place for thriving communities, and a destination for leisure and pleasure seekers. Its "golden era" at the turn of the nineteenth century is the focus of this book.