Peggys Cove is a small village at 44° 29′ 34″ north 63° 55′ 3″ west in St. Margarets Bay on the lighthouse trail of Halifax County, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, and it is the home of sculptor and painter William E. deGarthe. The community is one of the busiest tourist attractions in the province. Its famous lighthouse stands at the eastern entrance of St. Margaret's Bay. The name 'Peggy' is a nickname for the name 'Margaret'. The name 'Peggys Cove' may have originated with an early settler.
Places of interest
Originally a fishing village , it is now primarily a tourist attraction, although its inhabitants still fish for lobster, and the village still maintains a rustic appearance.
Lighthouse
Peggys Cove has a classic red-and-white lighthouse, retired from active service on a rocky point, and it is perhaps the most-photographed place in Atlantic Canada. The lighthouse now contains a small Canada Post office. Visitors can visit the lighthouse itself and go walking on the rocky shore. A sign warns visitors that the unpredictable surf carries away several incautious visitors a year.
The deGarthe Gallery
From May 1 to October 31 of each year the deGarthe Gallery is open to the public, where 65 of William E. deGarthe's paintings and sculptures are on exhibition.
Memorial Provincial Park
On an outcropping 30-m (100-ft) granite face of rock behind the house of William E. deGarthe, the sculptor carved a lasting monument to Nova Scotian fishermen depicting 32 fishermen and their wives and children enveloped by the wings of a guardian angel.
Whalesback Memorial
Nearby is a memorial to the victims of the Swissair Flight 111 air disaster, which crashed into the sea off Peggys Cove in 1998.
Hacketts Cove
Hacketts Cove, which is 7.80 km down Peggy's Cove Road, is the home of Nautel Limited, which manufactures transmitters used by broadcasting and navigational stations around the world.
Murder mystery
Perhaps of the strangest links to Peggys Cove was created by Mark Guglielmo, who on May 10, 1994, drove his car from South Daytona, Florida, on a long and mysterious journey to Peggys Cove. After killing his wife Kimberly Anne Guglielmo with a hatchet blow to the head, he claims to have taken her corpse to a friend in Greenwich, Connecticut, who in turn is alleged to have put the lower half of the torso in the waters of the Hudson River near Tarrytown and the top half under a tree in woods near Bedford, both in Westchester County and both near the Viking-influenced town name of Valhalla, New York. He personally continued his journey to bury a mock Viking helmet and longsword bearing his wife's former surname Hagger inscribed upon its blade. Both were then concealed among rocks of the shoreline at Peggys Cove where Mark Guglielmo believed that Lief Ericson and his men arrived in longboats centuries ago. To date no announcement has been made concerning the discovery of these strange artifacts, and Guglielmo is serving a 40-year prison sentence in Florida for the murder of his wife.
Reference
See also
External links
- William E. deGarthe art works
- Nautel web site
Last updated: 06-04-2005 09:31:01
