Backyard History: Recent Episodes
Andrew MacLean
The hidden stories that happened in your own backyard. Podcast for Andrew MacLean‘s weekly history column running in newspapers across The Canadian Maritimes. website: backyardhistory.ca email: backyardhistorypodcast@gmail.com facebook: @backyard.history1
The 1857 wreck of the Monasco off Burin, Newfoundland, killed nearly every passenger aboard — except for a mysterious woman claiming to be the captain's wife, the captain, and the crew. The survivors' account, however, didn't quite add up...
CONTENT WARNING: Dobbin The Diver's description of what he saw when he dove down to the shipwreck is very ... vivid. Parents might be risking nightmares by playing this episode for young kids!
This story appears in the book 'Backyard History: Forgotten Stories From Atlantic Canada's Past Volume Two.' Get it at backyardhistory.ca
The controversial American poet Allen Ginsberg arrives in New Brunswick for the only Canadian date on his legendary sold out 1967 tour reading his historic epic poem: Howl. The reaction to his Easter reading of that poem in a Saint John church was, shall we say ... mixed!
backyardhistory.ca
The true story of a Moncton innkeeper's mysterious disappearance, unsolved murder, and miscarriage of justice. This special episode, featuring 13 voice actresses and actors voicing historical quotes to bring the story alive, digs deep into the archives to piece together what really happened to Timothy McCarthy and who almost certainly murdered him.
This story appears in the book 'Backyard History: Rebellious Women in The Maritimes,' which can be found at backyardhistory.ca/books
A quiet Cape Breton day is broken by a plane crash, which soon attracts the attention of the entire world. The second part of a two-part series on famous, pioneering aviator Beryl Markham's historic transatlantic flight that ended up in a Cape Breton bog.
This is the cover story of the third Backyard History book, 'Rebellious Women In The Maritimes.' Find it at backyardhistory.ca/books
The incredible story of Beryl Markham's legendary Atlantic crossing, an implausible story involving everything from royal affairs to Kenyan lions, which unceremoniously ended up in a Cape Breton bog.
Part one of two!
This is the cover story of the book 'Backyard History: Rebellious Women in the Maritimes,' available at backyardhistory.ca/books
A gold watch was given to Captain Milne as a reward for his clever ruse that turned the tables on the men who captured his ship...
Declared dead in the Second World War, Atlantic Canadian pilot Allan Spear escaped captivity, survived behind enemy lines, and returned home for an unexpected Christmas reunion.
Buy the books at backyardhistory.ca/books
A Maritimes movie is suppressed by Hollywood as it tries to kill off the Canadian film industry ... featuring a surprising appearance by a young Joey Smallwood!
This story appears in the new book 'Backyard History: Mysterious Stories From Atlantic Canada's Past' which is available at backyardhistory.ca
Little Pictou Island, Nova Scotia, gets its first ever play in the most unusual of circumstances ... after a winter ferry from PEI gets stuck in the ice and drifts over to the island!
Get the Backyard History books at backyardhistory.ca
A special LIVE podcast of "Only Men May Vote!" starring special guests Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers, Green Party Leader and MLA David Coon, Poet Laureate Fawn Parker, Minister of Opportunities New Brunswick Luke Randall and City Councillor Cassandra LeBlanc!
Recorded in front of a crowd of a hundred people at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre in Fredericton on March 7th, 2025.
A mysterious Englishman sailed to New Brunswick in the 1850s. His name and his fate are unknown. All that remains of him is his diary, which recounts an incredible adventure.
Buy the Backyard History books at backyardhistory.ca
A long-lost interview in the forest sheds light on the man behind the Maritimes most famous so-called ghost...
Buy the three Backyard History books at backyardhistory.ca/books
A young girl keeps a secret diary to solve a mystery as she is growing up on an island where new immigrants to Canada are quarantined.
backyardhistory.ca
A dark murder mystery on Christmas in the old garrison city of Halifax changed the Maritimes.
100 years ago, a tragedy led to two crosses being painted on Sugarloaf in Campbellton. This is the story of what happened.
A Victorian aristocrat moves to PEI and encounters a ghost in her new house: the biggest mansion on the Island called Binstead Manor. She decided to investigate the haunting herself...
This story appears in the new book 'Backyard History: Rebellious Women In The Maritimes'! Order your copy at backyardhistory.ca
Causing riots wherever he went, this Maritimer became a leader in the KKK, making a fortune spreading hate and division all over the United States! (He wasn't as popular in the Maritimes, where locals tried to throw him off a cliff!)
Buy the book 'Backyard History: Forgotten Stories From Atlantic Canada's Past' at backyardhistory.ca
When alcohol was banned in Nova Scotia during Prohibition, reluctant liquor control inspector Clifford Rose encountered a charismatic woman leading a gang selling illegal booze. Her name was Amy Mason but everyone knew her as "The Queen of the Bootleggers."
A small-town boy from the Maritimes becomes obscenely wealthy and ridiculously famous in America for dentist circuses...
This story appears in the brand new SECOND Backyard History book! Order a signed copy at backyardhistory.ca/book
A trip to the Yukon Gold Rush leads to a series of completely unexpected twists, with a young Maritimer becoming the Speaker of Parliament ... and ending up sent to a lunatic asylum!
Detective William Carr (who appeared in the Joe Walnut episodes) goes for a relaxing trip into the forest to learn to hunt and fish, but ends up being hunted by rogue trappers...
Order the Backyard History book at backyardhistory.ca/book
When a Wolastoqiyik man wasn’t allowed on a stagecoach, he vowed to race it to its destination, and won!
Buy the book: backyardhistory.ca/book
The dramatic grand finale of the rum running boat The Liberty in part three of the Liberty On The Rocks trilogy.
Order a signed copy of the Backyard History book at backyardhistory.ca/book
At age 15, Hugh Corkum becomes a rum runner to provide for his family after his father, a Lunenburg Nova Scotia sea captain, loses his job after crashing into an American sumbarine.
Part Two of the 'Liberty On The Rocks' trilogy about the Liberty, the fastest rum running ship of Atlantic Canada!
Buy the Backyard History book at backyardhistory.ca/book
The Mounties lay a trap for The Liberty, the most famous rum running ship in the Maritimes during Prohibition!
Part one of a three part series called "Liberty On The Rocks."
Book: backyardhistory.ca/book
A killer sent boxes of poisoned candies to religious leaders of Saint John, in this, the Backyard History's magnum opus episode!
Isolated islanders find a unique way to let Canadians know a storm cut them off from the mainland.
As Babe Ruth's life fell apart, he headed into the woods of the Maritimes in a secret and mysterious effort to get better...
The Canadian Forces in Italy during WW2 rescue a horse who they name Princess Louise who accompanies them throughout Europe and back home.
Juliana Horatia Ewing, a Victorian British author in Fredericton, formed an unlikely friendship with Welastekokewiyik master canoe builder Peter Polches, challenging societal norms; her transformative experiences led to a notable confrontation defending Indigenous people at a prestigious New Year's Party in 1869.
The dramatic rise and fall of Fredericton's curious detox centre, which involved patients taking a gold-based medicine to cure alcoholism!
https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-dr-leslie-e-keeley-gold-cure-institute-for-drunkards
As explosions rang out in Halifax in 1945, ordinary Haligonians raced toward the central ammunition storage depot to stop the flames before the city blew up … again!
backyardhistory.ca/f/the-second-halifax-explosion
Two young men volunteer to for a mysterious secret mission in Russia. One of them will not make it home alive.
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/canadas-forgotten-siberian-expedition-ollie-winslows-odyssey
One of the Maritimes’ most popular ghost stories is the tale of a cursed, eternally burning sailing ship haunting the waters off of the Northern coast of New Brunswick.
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-ghostly-fire-ship-of-the-baie-des-chaleurs
Leon Trotsky missed the beginning of the Russian Revolution because he was in -of all places- Amherst, Nova Scotia.
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/trotskys-maritimes-revolutionary-roadblock
PEI didn't even know it was at war when the American fleet appeared. The invaders went house to house stealing clothes, carpets, and curtains ... and their Great Seal. However, one Islander who was taken captive went on to become an important spy...
A spy arrives by U-Boat to sabotage Canada. He isn't very good.
https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-worlds-worst-nazi-spy
A forest fire approaches the thriving town of Musquash, sending its residents fleeing to a nearby marsh for safety.
Musquash was a thriving community on the Bay of Fundy, boasting several factories, mills, a railway station, and a port. All of that came to an abrupt end when the town was completely destroyed in only a couple of hours one afternoon in 1903.
https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-forest-fire-that-destroyed-musquash
Two Kates go to the Yukon Gold Rush. One becomes famous, the other is forgotten. But who was the REAL Klondike Kate?
Was the famous Hollywood Star "Klondike Kate" aka Eloise Rockwell based on stories she had heard about an earlier figure from the Yukon Gold Rush, a forgotten Maritimer named Kate Ryan?
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-real-klondike-kate
In 1949, a little Canadian island off of the coast of Nova Scotia declared itself to be its own country.
Calling itself The Principality of Outer Baldonia, it quickly developed all of the trappings of an independent nation: it had its own currency, postage stamps, its own flag, and a coat of arms boasting on it pictures of a tuna fish, a sheep, and a smiling lobster.
It soon became “one of the zaniest hoaxes in the history of international affairs.”
https://backyardhistory.ca/the-long-reads/f/the-nova-scotian-island-that-declared-independence
How did 111 Russian coins get buried in Bathurst? Who did it? Where did they come from and what happened to them? Lets dig into this Backyard Mystery!
Flying Through History as The Red Devil Takes to the Skies! On a clear Autumn day in 1912 thousands of people gathered to see the world famous Red Devil. Amid a backdrop of the Saint John Exhibition -then the second largest in the country- competing with Toronto’s CNE for position of biggest Exhibition in Canada, another rivalry was playing out. The Red Devil’s pilot, Captain Baldwin, was competing with the airplane's then rival for the future of the skies; the hot air balloon, and its pilot Professor Bonnette. Back then hot air balloons were considered much safer and faster than airplanes, and most sensible people thought the airplane would be a short-lived novelty. The rival airplane versus balloon pilots competed for the public’s approval by engaging in increasingly daring and risky behavior.After Professor Bonnette wowed the crowd by parachuting out of his balloon –and accidentally ending up in the Harbour– Captain Baldwin decided to one-up him by taking a local Saint Johner along with him aboard The Red Devil. One extremely reluctant and very unhappy reporter was forced by his newspaper editor to go on a trip on the airplane, a then-brand new technology only invented nine years earlier. His vivid description of flying over Saint John in the earliest days of aviation memorably begins with the angry opening line: “The editor is an autocrat...” https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-red-devil---new-brunswicks-first-airplane
Camp B-70, near Fredericton, held captured German Nazis and Fascist Italians during the Second World War. The prisoners and guards played an elaborate game of cat and mouse, with constant attempts at escape. Remarkably, one escape was actually stopped by an actual real live cat, who had been performing in the camp as part of a traveling circus..
When a bank robber gets stuck in a chimney on April Fools Day, nobody believes a 12 year old boy trying to save him..
On the cold and moonless night in the winter of 1848, the only ever attempted robbery of the Bank of New Brunswick in Saint John took place.
It was not the least bit successful, and turned into quite the bizarre -but true- night long incident.
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/bungling-bank-burglar-gets-stuck-in-chimney
“While I am writing to you the shells are screaming and the bullets are hitting but why should I care? I have just had a good meal!” wrote Emile Goguen, an Acadian lumberjack from New Brunswick who had volunteered to go fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War, and who would be interrogated about his activities while there.
More than 1500 Canadians volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The only New Brunswicker to join was Emile Goguen.
Prince Edward Island was the first place in Canada to have a car ... and the only province to ban them!
https://backyardhistory.ca/f/when-pei-banned-cars
A beloved Canadian radio host and author had a radical past.
In the 1960s a Maritimer achieved Canada wide fame for his talent in gardening. Known as Mr Green Thumbs, this kindly old man put out no fewer than four massive bestselling books on gardening, and ran a popular regular radio show on how to grow plants.
Mr Green Thumbs’ many dedicated fans likely didn’t know that behind the friendly voice and the kindly writing style of the old man, was a devoted lifelong communist who was so dedicated to his cause that soon after the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the communist Soviet Union, the radical gardener went to that new country to see the revolution in action for himself…
The story of a forgotten Canadian woman who fought in the American Revolution ... against the Americans.
French settlers defend their fort from a group of English combatants set on destroying enemy settlements
After two hermit brothers become famous for their songs, art, and poems, a big city reporter goes to Dark Harbour to meet them at the ramshackle house they call The Bat.
For a brief time The Maritimes were occupied by the Dutch, and became a colony called Nova Hollandia..
Three shipwrecked sailors are stranded on a rock in the Bay of Fundy until an unlikely trio come across them and bring them to safety.
A secret diary kept hidden under a patient's mattress at the Saint John Lunatic Asylum tells the story of the state of mental health care in the province over 100 years ago.
A mysterious German man is the prime suspect in a New Brunswick bridge bombing at the height of the First World War.
Two children mysteriously vanish into thin air one day. But there is a lot more to their disappearance than meets the eye.
A popular young baseball player becomes one of the few Black Canadians permitted to fight in the First World War.
A simple question leads down a research rabbit hole leading to a forgotten Portuguese colony in Cape Breton..
A ghost prowls the woods causing terror. Was this really a ghost or was something else going on?
Just in time for one of the world's deadliest pandemics, New Brunswick unveils their new health department which led them to having some of the lowest case numbers during the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918.
After over 1000 years of driving, Canada and the world, finally decide to figure out which side of the road to drive on.
One young girl ventures out alone to rescue stranded sailors on a stormy St Croix River.
After a life of piracy, a man retreats to the woods in New Brunswick to escape justice and hide his treasure.
Way up in Canada's North lies a failed spaceport that was Canada's chance at being leaders in satellite and cell phone technology.
One woman's battle against lawmakers in the early 1900's led to major developments in women's rights and ultimately has been a crucial part of women's gender equality.
A 1961 government exercise on nuclear preparedness quickly becomes a fiasco that disturbs the lives of Canadians and almost made them lose faith in many of their leaders.
A large stone with a face carved into it has people puzzled as they try to figure out its origin.
On her way to make history as the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia Earhart graced Maritimers with her presence.
A mysterious island in the Bay of Fundy is potentially the source of shipwrecks, buried treasure, and secrets from the past.... or is it?
They had no idea the stranger who had come to Bathurst was an escaped Nazi Prisoner of War waiting for a U-Boat to get him..
The story of one of the most famous rum running schooners that was sunk during an epic pursuit in the 1920s
Once considered a food for the poor, the humble lobster has risen through the culinary ranks and is now a delicacy in cuisines around the world.
People didn't always like spending time at the beach. But over time, tourism became more popular and so did trips to seaside destinations
In only two hours massive fire completely destroys bustling Campbellton. But it doesn't break the spirit of the people and they rebuild within a year.
After the largest volcanic eruption in human history in 1815 blocks out the sun, leading to snow in August and hard times in the Maritimes.
If you think Maritimers drink a lot today, wait till you hear how much earlier generations of Maritimers drank!
A quiet Maritimes town is rocked by a brutal murder, its first in decades. Everyone knew who did it, but after threats and intimidation get the murderer off, violent riots erupt..
After a small town mob boss starts making big moves in the black market, a straight-laced British detective goes undercover to try to figure out what is going on.
Much to a small village's surprise, a Soviet bomber crash lands in a bog. The world turns its attention to the 1939 race to get to first reach the pilots.
A mysterious injured foreign man is found dying in the woods of Chipman NB. After the town decides they can't handle his medical expenses, he disappears. Coincidentally, around the same time he goes missing in New Brunswick, a mysterious legless man washes up on the beach of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
Newspaper reports tell the story of a crazy invention seen driving around the streets of Saint John NB. Was it the first car to be invented? listen to find out.
A circus rolls int the small town of Fredericton, but soon tensions between the performers and the locals boil over, kicking into a full blown riot after a dead snake is thrown on the stage..
During the First World War, the crew of a Canadian naval vessel was abducted by a German U-boat, but were surprised to find what they were met with on board.
Looking to spread the word of aestheticism to the world, Oscar Wilde embarked on a tour to speak about bringing art into one's life. But not everything went according to plan when he arrived in the Maritimes.
Ruins deep in the woods of Nova Scotia tell the story of a small town far ahead of its time. With electricity long before most, and a local railway leading to the shore. Electric City.
One of the oldest buildings in the Maritimes, no one really knows the origins of the mysterious Mount House
There aren't any wolves in New Brunswick, right? Well not according to these 19th century accounts of wolf attacks that took place throughout the province, terrorizing people and causing the government to place a bounty on them.
When villagers of a remote northern village are stricken with symptoms of diphtheria, two ace pilots battle the elements of a Canadian Winter to bring them much needed medicine.
A tale filled with ups and downs, as one man tries desperately to get his balloon into air.
Christmas through the eyes and told through the diary entries of average people living in the 19th century.
It took a while for people to adopt having Christmas trees in their homes. Perhaps because they used to be lit with open flames, and Santa once nearly met his end because of a flaming Christmas tree!
The story of how Christmas was banned, and how before Santa Claus became popular, children hung the stocking by the chimney with care in hopes that Mab, Queen of The Fairies would soon be there.
An unhealthy lifestyle leads to coronation drama when King Bertie is set to take the throne.
A young woman, bored with her rural New Brunswick life, runs away to the states where she leads a life of secrecy as a male Civil War nurse and spy.
Tasked with a mission set to cripple Canada's supply routes during the second world war, a Nazi spy abandons his orders when the locals offer him nothing but kindness.
The last soldier to die in World War 1 was a Nova Scotian man named George Price. He died just two minutes before the end of the war.
What lurks beneath the surface of Lake Utopia? Eye witness accounts tell the tale of a monster who stalked fishermen and visitors of the lake for years.