A great new website goes live

Wait a minute. The place had a very familiar look to it.

The new website, www.discovercaledonia.ca, went live last week. It was designed and created by Richard Lane, about whom I wrote in a column several months ago. He is the father of Breagh and Cam and husband of Jane, all of whom moved here from Scotland over a year ago to set up farming, run a website business, and, in the case of the kids, go to school.

Right across the top of the new website, on a picture of a lake, are the words The Middle of Everywhere. Caledonia is truly at the heart of southwestern Nova Scotia, equidistant from Annapolis Royal, Liverpool, Bridgewater and New Germany. It has historically been the gateway to the wilderness now occupied by Kejimkujik National Park and the Tobeatic Wilderness Area, the area made famous by the Tent Dwellers, whose centennial festival ran all last year.

The new website celebrates that, and everything else of interest about North Queens. It’s called Discover Caledonia instead of Discover North Queens because the name Caledonia appears on most maps. On the home page are stories about the community’s new skating rink, the product of the work of George Uhlman and all kinds of other local people, including the members of the fire department. There is even a hockey league in operation now.

There is a story about the N. F. Douglas general store, one of the oldest general stores in existence in Nova Scotia, opened more than 135 years ago. The website has a good history of the store, in a piece written by Mary Keirstead. Mary ranks right up there with the most dedicated and busiest of the community’s volunteers, serving as chair of the Board of Trade and editor of the Health Centre newsletter, Good News for North Queens.

Also on the home page are stories about the health centre, which has four doctors and a nurse practitioner, and a link to Peter’s Nature Notes, a series about the natural life of North Queens. Peter Hope, who used to be the chief interpreter at Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, has a way of putting things that makes you want to strap on your skis or snowshoes and head out into the North Queens woods (or up to the Park, where the trails are groomed).

There is a notice about a webcam coming to the community, which the website says will enable expats to keep an eye on their former home, for current residents to check out the parking situation and for prospective visitors to check out the local smiling faces. The website calls for nominations as to the location of the new webcam.

There is a community notice board, with upcoming events like the visit of NDP leader Darrell Dexter to the Board of Trade meeting on the ninth of March (look for a May election). There is a list of services and businesses, including the national park, a P-12 school, a nursing home, health centre, high speed internet, three post offices, a pharmacy, hardware store and building centre, food market, liquor store, gas station, one of the best pizza restaurants in the province, branch of the Valley Credit Union and a variety of organizations.

Underneath a fun picture of the skating rink in action is a section on visitor information, listing many of the area’s attractions, including Kejimkujik, the North Queens Heritage House Museum, the McGowan Lake Fish Hatchery and the Queens County Fair. There is a photo gallery, with a collection of whimsical pictures of the area, most of them taken by Suzanne Frail, who runs the area’s Visitor Information Centre. Other photographs on the website were taken by Richard Lane and his wife, Jane Barker.

Richard’s website company, Webaria, will be busy if prospective customers see the Discover Caledonia website. It is professional but fun. In Scotland, Richard was responsible for over 100 websites, and in Nova Scotia is developing websites both in this province and beyond. He handles the whole process for a customer, from registration of the name of the website, through design, development of the web page, hosting of the site and maintenance of the site. His clients have included top hotels and restaurants, and people can see some of his websites at his own website, Webaria.com.

Before coming to Nova Scotia, Richard lived on a small Scottish island. It was during that time that he realized the importance of the internet for breaking down geographical barriers, enabling people to live in rural areas. That was part of the impetus behind the new Caledonia website, which was started by a committee from the Board of Trade and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.

There will be an official unveiling of the new Caledonia website at a time to be announced, in the near future.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com