For anyone who is a fan of history, as well as exploring abandoned areas, Roxbury is one of the best places to go in the province.
Roxbury was once a well-populated and thriving logging community back in the 1800s until harsh winters and poor logging supply forced people to leave the area. Now there is not much left but some stone foundations, wells, and some cemeteries.
Located near Bridgetown in the Annapolis Valley, what is left of the community is located down a dirt road, a forested space in the middle of a clear cut. There are places to park your vehicle so that you can walk in, it's about an 18 km/11 mile hike in. You are also able to drive if you have either an ATV, lifted vehicle or a woods beater.
Once you have reached the wooded area where the community was settled, there is an old mailbox with a book where you can sign your name. There's also a map to show you where some of the cooler stop spots are located. One of the first ones you will come to is a set of gravestones. They're back in the woods quite a distant, so be prepared to walk even if you are driving. There's what is left of a stone wall that more than likely was a property line covered in moss along the beaten path to the stones.
As you're driving/ hiking, enjoy the tree cover (going in the fall is highly recommended), and watch out for any of the small signs that indicate where some old wells can still be found (some of which are quite deep) and you can also find foundations left from the homes that were once there.
You can sense the hardship that would have come with living in the rural community. When you come to the main graveyard of the community, there are a number of stones that have broken, and it can be hard to read them from their age. You will also see at least one stone that simply says, Baby.
When you come to the end of the wooded area, there has been more clear-cutting. DO NOT STOP! A mistake my boyfriend and I made our first trip out here. The big draw is the lake where the mill would have once been, and it is still some distance.
When you do finally come to the lake, there's a dammed spot built up so that you can drive across to what's left of the main dam. I highly recommended taking a moment to stop here. If you go in the fall and there hasn't been much rain, the water level should be low enough that you can see old tree stumps sticking out of the water. In my mind, those were trees cut down for logging, and there's a very deep sense of the work that would have gone into making this space functional as a logging site.
Roxbury holds a special place in my heart, not only as one of the coolest (in my opinion) abandoned ghost towns in Nova Scotia but also because of the feeling that comes from it being a ghost town. If you spend enough time at the gravestones, read the signs that are posted periodically along the way, and take the time to absorb the little bit of history that these people played in the development of this beautiful province, you will feel the people who lived there. You will feel fortunate for the way life as changed and been made easier.
Although the mill itself is no longer there (at least not anywhere easily accessible, walking around the lake you will find a large pile of rocks with an old railway post sticking out amongst them. Take a moment to look around you, to look out over the lake, and just be grateful.
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