Stewiacke was named in the language of the local
Mi'kmaq First Nations and is a word meaning "flowing out in small streams" and "winding river" or "whimpering or whining as it goes". During the
French and Indian War, the British built
Fort Ellis in the area to protect New England Planters from Mi'kmaq raids. In the late 1990s, a tourism attraction named Mastodon Ridge opened near the town's highway exit, based on a local discovery of a
mastodon skeleton. The Mastodon Ridge Complex features a craft store, toy store, a mini golf and
interpretive centre which displays several of the mastodon's bones. Stewiacke is home to a bar, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a pizzeria, numerous fast food restaurants, two gas stations, a hardware store, an 18-hole golf course and a newly built elementary school that consolidates 2 former local schools. Stewiacke is also home to a volunteer fire brigade that was the first department in North America to use specialized foam as a fire suppression agent, alongside other achievements involving the implementation of certain fire apparatus. The town's most notorious event occurred on April 12, 2001, when a local teenager, at home on a school in-service day, tampered with a railway switch on the
CN Rail Halifax-
Montreal mainline, causing
Via Rail Canada's
Ocean to
derail several minutes later when it passed through the centre of the community. Several buildings and rail cars were destroyed and many people were injured, including some severely, although no fatalities resulted. On June 30, 2021, Stewiacke was hit by an EF1 tornado. In 2023, the
Boston Christmas Tree came from Stewiacke. == Demographics ==