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Outer Baldonia
Written by: Donnie Jacquard

In 1950, Russell Moore Arundel of New Jersey, a Washington lobbyist with the Pepsi-Cola Company and president of the Long Island Pepsi-Cola Company, constructed a stone building on the Outer Bald. Arundel believed that a suitable chalet overlooking the tuna grounds would allow tuna anglers out on the rips a safe haven to rest, especially those afflicted with mal de mer. The view overlooking Lobster Bay and the Gulf of Maine was unsurpassed, especially when the fog cleared.
The construction material to build the Outer Bald castle of spherical beach stones was hauled by hand by Wedgeport fishermen.The $3000 building was to measure thirty feet by twenty feet with an eight foot square picture window. Former Outer Bald workers recall the tough job of carrying heavy loads from the shore to the highest point of elevation as extremely strenuous. Ironically, the Outer Bald shanty was practically never used, as landing on the beach was reserved for the most nimble boatmen and passengers. Windswept and desolate, the only inhabitants of the Outer Bald when Russell Moore Arundel succeeded in acquiring his property was a flock of about fifty free roaming sheep. From the Outer Baldonia's Castle flapped the Royal Banner, a bluefin tuna in a white circular crest in a sea-green field, according to Cyril Robinson.

Legend has it that it was, in fact, while Arundel and his friends were engaged in an episode of rum drinking, that they conceived, wrote, approved and published the Declaration of Independence of Outer Baldonia. Reflecting the primacy of sport fishers such as Arundel in its leadership, the trappings of the state seem to have teemed with aquatic life. The currency, for example, was called the Tunar.
In the birding community, the Balds are known for the nesting colonies of Leach's Storm Petrels, eider ducks, cormorants, bank swallows, gulls, and terns. Many other varieties of birds such as snipe, plovers, guillemots, Canada geese, and some song birds also nest among the rocks and grasses of the Balds. Brant geese, snowy owls, whimbrels, raptors, and songbirds migrate through the islands. Through the work of ornithologists Israel Pothier, Marie Henry and others, the Outer Bald, the Middle Bald, and the Mossy Bald have been reserved as a bird sanctuary. Russell Moore Arundel of Warrenton, Virginia, sold the Outer Bald to the Nova Scotia Bird Society, through the United States Nature Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy of Canada for one dollar in 1973. The sanctuary was to be declared as a memorial to the grantor's brother, Earle E. Arundel. The sanctuary is open to the public, but may have a tern rookery, and should not be visited during breeding season.

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Outer Baldonia
2011
Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, Canada


Credits:
Victor LeBlanc
Pauline LeBlanc

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Money Used On Outer Baldonia
1950

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Money Used On Outer Baldonia
1950

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Roseate Terns
Modern

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Fishing Well
Circa 1949
Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, Canada


Credits:
Nova Scotia Information Services