Pugwash | ||
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Village | ||
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Motto: World Famous for Peace | ||
Location of Pugwash in Nova Scotia | ||
Coordinates: 45°51′00″N 63°39′40″W / 45.850°N 63.661°WCoordinates: 45°51′00″N 63°39′40″W / 45.850°N 63.661°W | ||
Country | Canada | |
Province | Nova Scotia | |
County | Cumberland | |
Founded | Early 1700s | |
Electoral Districts Federal |
Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley |
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Provincial | Cumberland North | |
Government | ||
• Governing Body | Pugwash Village Commission | |
• Chair | Christie Blackie | |
• MLA | Terry Farrell (L) | |
• MP | Bill Casey (L) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 9.83 km2 (3.80 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 5 m (16 ft) | |
Population (2006) | ||
• Total | 784 | |
• Density | 79.7/km2 (206/sq mi) | |
Time zone | ATS | |
Postal Code | B0K 1L0 | |
Area code(s) | +1-902-243 | |
Website | The Village Of Pugwash |
Pugwash (2006 population: 784) is a Canadian village in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.
The village is home to fishing, salt mining, and small-scale manufacturing and is situated on the Northumberland Strait at the mouth of the Pugwash River.
Pugwash takes its name from the native Mi'kmaq word, "Pagweak," meaning "Shallow Water", in reference to a reef near the mouth of the harbour, making navigation through the shallow waters difficult.
Pugwash sits atop a salt deposit measuring 457.2 m thick and is home to the largest underground salt mine in Atlantic Canada, with shipments from its port, as well as by rail from a facility at Oxford Junction.
Pugwash is famous for being the site of an international conference of scholars organized by Bertrand Russell in 1957, and hosted by Pugwash's native son, steel magnate Cyrus Eaton (1883–1979), at the lodge on property owned by the Pugwash Park Commission located just north of the village. This conference brought high-level scientists from both sides of the Cold War divide to state their opposition to nuclear weapons. This meeting was a follow-up to an earlier statement of notables whose signatories had included Albert Einstein and Linus Pauling, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. The name Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs has since been used to refer to the group, although citizens in Pugwash generally term these visitors as the "Great Thinkers."
Visitors entering Pugwash were once greeted by roadside signs announcing that they were entering the "Home of the Thinkers," but the signs have since been replaced by a newer slogan "World Famous for Peace". The switch was made in response to the 1995 awarding of the Nobel Prize to the International Pugwash conferences "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms".