The
end of glaciation began 13,500 years ago and ended with the region becoming largely ice-free 11,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of
Paleo-Indian settlement in the region follows rapidly after deglaciation. What is now the Northumberland Shore, including Pugwash, is part of the
Mi'kma'ki, the territory of the
Mi'kmaq, who have inhabited it for 13,500 years. Early colonial maps of the area describe West Pugwash as "Indian land". The Chignecto peninsula was settled by
Acadians from the 1660s onward, this period ended with the with
Expulsion and the
Bay of Fundy Campaign during the
French and Indian War.
Wallace and nearby
Tatamagouche were the first villages in Acadia to be burned because they were important ports through which Acadians supplied the French
Fortress Louisbourg. British colonial settlement began with the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists, coming to Chignecto in 1790, and then with the Seaman family, formerly of New York State, moving to farm the mouth of River Phillip in 1795, and ultimately purchasing what became the Pugwash town site from the Mi'kmaw in 1802. Pugwash is home to many descendants of Highland
Scots who immigrated to the region in the 19th century. All street signs in the town are bilingual, with both English and Gaelic translations. The village celebrates its Scottish heritage each July 1, with the annual Gathering of the Clans and Fisherman's Regatta. The Pugwash area, and indeed the entire north shore of Nova Scotia, is famed for its warm waters and sandy beaches. Some claim the waters in summer here are the warmest waters north of the Carolinas in the United States. The Crowley Memorial was erected in 1870 at Pugwash by the Legislature of Nova Scotia in honour of Mary E. Crowley, who died October 1869, aged 12 years after rescuing her younger brother and sister from a house fire. This is believed to be the first public monument erected to a female in Canada. In 1898 a fire destroyed the entire town leaving 1,200 people homeless, with
The New York Times reporting 200 dwellings, 5 churches, 20 stores, 3 hotels, and several mills" were destroyed, and that the "town was little insured." Pugwash is famous for being the site of an international conference of scholars organized by
Bertrand Russell in 1957, and hosted by Pugwash's native son, steel magnate
Cyrus Eaton (1883–1979), at the
Thinkers' Lodge on property owned by the Pugwash Park Commission located at the north end of Water Street in the village. This conference brought high-level scientists from both sides of the
Cold War divide to state their opposition to
nuclear weapons. This meeting was a follow-up to an earlier statement of notables whose signatories had included
Albert Einstein and
Linus Pauling, the
Russell–Einstein Manifesto. The name
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs has since been used to refer to the group. A myth about the village is that the children's cartoon character
Captain Pugwash was named after the international organization that takes its name from the town, but the character, a pirate, in fact first appeared in 1950, several years before the planning of the first Pugwash conference took place. == Today ==