1 EARLY PEOPLE

Indians at Stanhope

Carbon-dated artifacts of the Palaeo-Indians who came to the Mari- times from continental North America in pursuit of the caribou about 10,500 years ago, after the last ice age, have been found at Basin Head, RBI; and it is possible that artifacts found by Parks Canada at their “dig” on Rustico Island may also be as much as 10,000 years old (statement by Professor Keenleyside to Parks Canada, comparing this dig with one in 1913 by Wittenberg).

Later groups of Indians came up the eastern seaboard about 3,500 years ago, and left signs of their encampments, in the form of shell- piles on Rustico Island, adjacent to Stanhope, and it is probable that they dug and caught shellfish on the Gulf Shore here and in Covehead Bay.

A variety of finished and unfinished stone implements courtesy Island Magazine & National Museum of Man