The Pictou Island Heritage Society was founded in 2016 by a dedicated board of volunteers with the intention of preserving and recording the Island’s history.
The first major project the PIHS has taken on is the return of the Pictou Island ice boat, built in 1941 and operated until 1950 by Islander Eddie “Spike” MacDonald. The PIHS built the Heritage Site during the fall of 2018 and successfully returned the ice boat to Pictou Island in the summer of 2019. The Heritage Site now stands as a small museum on the Island, with several displays that reflect the Island’s history of industry, infrastructure, and homesteading.
The PIHS has also begun collecting an archive of interviews that focuses on individual lived experiences of the Pictou Island community. The interviews are conducted by the summer student employed by the PIHS and are stored digitally. The interviews can be accessed by request through the Pictou Island Heritage Society.
The PIHS will be continuing their work on historic preservation through the collection of physical artifacts, expanding their archive of oral history, documenting timelines of community activity, maintaining a website, and by taking on future major projects.
If you would like to contact the Heritage Society, have items that you would like to donate to the Heritage Site, or have any other questions, please feel free to contact us by email at
