Roberts Island is a community located in the Yarmouth Municipal District of

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo-Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It com ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Canada.

History

The island was called Île La Tour by

Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...

, after

Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour (1593–1666) was a Huguenot French colonist and fur trader who served as Governor of Acadia from 1631–1642 and again from 1653–1657. Early life Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour was born in France i ...

who had a trading post in this area. A settlement on the island prior to the

Acadian Expulsion The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain. It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Br ...

was also known as "Ouikmakagan". The island is said to be the birthplace of the American dish

pasta primavera ''Pasta primavera'' () is an Italian-American dish that consists of pasta in a cream sauce and fresh vegetables, invented in the 1970s. Origins In 1975, New York restaurateur Sirio Maccioni flew to the Canadian summer home of Italian Baron ...

. In 1975, New York restaurateur

Sirio Maccioni Sirio Maccioni (5 April 1932 – 20 April 2020) was an Italian restaurateur and author known for opening Le Cirque. Biography Maccioni got his start at Oscar's Delmonico, Delmonico's. Owner Oscar Tucci once stated, "Sirio and with Tony May w ...

, then owner of the French restaurant

Le Cirque Le Cirque was a French restaurant that has had several locations throughout the New York City borough of Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs ...

, was visiting an estate on Roberts Island known as Shangri-La. The estate was owned by Italian Baron Carlo Amato and his American wife, Lorraine Manville, who hosted several high profile visitors at Shangri-La, including Italian actresses

Gina Lollobrigida Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (4 July 1927 – 16 January 2023) was an Italian actress, model, photojournalist, and sculptor. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, a period in which she was an international ...

and

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States. With a career spanning over 70 years, she is one of the ...

. The 600-acre estate featured a 270-acre mansion, wild boar hunting, a

hedge maze A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. History Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mi ...

, a domed pool and multiple guest homes.

Nature conservation

In 2016, the

Nature Conservancy of Canada The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is a private, non-profit, charitable nature conservation and restoration organisation based in Canada. Since its founding in 1962, the organisation and its partners have protected of land and water acro ...

acquired a 20-hectare site located on the west side of Lobster Bay, in which Roberts Island is situated. About 20 percent of the site contains

salt marshes A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open Seawater, saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the ti ...

that are inhabited year-round by American black ducks and are frequented seasonally by

long-tailed duck The long-tailed duck (''Clangula hyemalis'') or coween, is a medium-sized sea duck that breeds in the tundra and taiga regions of the arctic and winters along the northern coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is the only member of ...

s and

green-winged teal The green-winged teal (''Anas carolinensis'') or American teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the northern areas of North America except on the Aleutian Islands. It was considered conspecific with the Eurasian teal (''A. crecca'' ...

s. The area serves as a home to white tailed deer, woodpeckers, songbirds,

common goldeneye The common goldeneye or simply goldeneye (''Bucephala clangula'') is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus ''Goldeneye (duck), Bucephala'', the goldeneyes. Its closest relative is the similar Barrow's goldeneye. The genus name is derived from th ...

surf scoter The surf scoter (''Melanitta perspicillata'') is a large sea duck native to North America. Adult males are almost entirely black with characteristic white patches on the forehead and the nape and adult females are slightly smaller and browner. S ...

s and geese. The endangered Eastern baccharis plant found within the Lobster Bay region is not found anywhere else in Canada and is more commonly found along the warmer

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

. At the time of the acquisition by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, approximately 3,000 to 3,200 of these plants were thought to exist within the bay, 20 to 30 of which were found in the protected area of Roberts Island. The forested area of the property also contains

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains of the United States and Canada * ''Picea glauca ''Picea glauca'', the whi ...

trees, as well as

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

References

Communities in Yarmouth County Unincorporated communities in Nova Scotia Islands of Nova Scotia {{YarmouthNS-geo-stub