Dyke on Jackson Barkhouse Road
Dykes
The Acadian people who lived in King’s County back in the 1600s were pretty smart cookies. Dealing with the 15+ meter (50+ foot) tides meant that a lot of potential farmlands were simply submerged every so often by high water. The solution they came up with was ingenious, but highly labour intensive to manufacture.
The answer was a series of dykes that would be placed at the mouth of rivers and streams, with a one way trap door called an aboiteau. The one-way gate, similar to a sluice gate, would allow water to flow out, but would shut closed upon water coming in from the Minas Basin, and so eventually the land upstream of the dyke would be dry enough to farm crops on.
The image this week is of a small dyke just off the Jackson Barkhouse Road near Pereau, NS taken this past week at high tide. We can see to the right of the image the water of the Basin being held back by the dyke wall, and the road and farmland, which is then actually below sea level (seen to the left), being protected from flooding seawater.
This is a small dyke which protects a few hundred hectares, where other dykes in the area protect thousands. It is amazing to see that an invention from the 1600s lives on in basically the same way and does the same essential job.
