Welcome to New France, Nova Scotia

The remains of NEW FRANCE, a sawmill settlement founded by the Stehelin family from France in 1892, lies in Digby County between two lakes on the banks of the Silver River.

The Stehelins were a prestigious family from Normandy, France who came to Nova Scotia in the early twentieth century to carve out a life in the wilderness.

It became known as Electric City because electric lighting was installed to operate from the mill's power long before such comforts were known in the rest of Digby County.

A pole railway with rails made of logs was built to carry lumber to Markets through Weymouth, some 17 miles away. The returning train also brought supplies and often guest from Europe and America to New France.

The Stehelin men left to fight in the war of 1914. When they returned at the war's end, lumber prices had declined. The family sold some of the land and moved away. The remains of this adventurous settlement, New France, were torn down in the 1950's.

A peaceful lake in New France

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Slowly but relentlessly, nature levels the works of man as if to bury all trace of his efforts here, but the story of new France will live as it passes down through the generations of all those who worked in building the dream. In it's perpetual silence, the forest will slowly but completely swallow up all traces of man's work here and lock up some secrets remaining of that great adventure of the Stehelin family.

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