Cornwallis River

Cornwallis River
Country	Canada
Basin features
Main source	North Mountain
River mouth	Minas Basin sea level
Physical characteristics
Length	48 km (30 mi)

The Cornwallis River is in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a meander length of approximately 48 km through eastern Kings County, from its source on the North Mountain at Grafton to its mouth near Wolfville on the Minas Basin. The lower portion of the river beginning at Kentville is tidal and there are extensive tidal marshes in the lower reaches. In its upper watershed at Berwick, the river draws on the Caribou Bog while a longer branch continues to the official source, a stream on the North Mountain at Grafton.

The original peoples of the area, the Mi'kmaq, knew it as The Narrow River, or Chijekwtook There are also references to the Mi'kmaq calling the river Jijuktu'kwejk.

The river was named Riviere St. Antoine by Samuel de Champlain after his arrival in the New World in the early 17th Century. Later it was called the Riviere des Habitants by the Acadians, who built a series of settlements around its mouth including the village of Grand-Pré and a smaller settlement further up the river at New Minas. The Acadians also built extensive dykelands in the area, although there is no clear evidence that the running dykes beside the river were built by them.

Following the Expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, the area was settled by New England Planters in 1760 who named the river after the townships established along its banks. The river became known as the Horton River. after Horton Township, the major Planter settlement at the mouth of the river, named after the ancestral home of George Montagu-Dunk, the official in charge of English settlement in Nova Scotia. However in the 19th century settlement and commercial growth moved upriver to the Kentville area in Cornwallis Township, named after Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax. As a result, the river assumed the name Cornwallis River by 1829.

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