Cavendish Dunelands Trail/Cavendish Sentier Dunelands

There is archaeological evidence that ancestors of the present-day Mi’kmaq lived on the shores of nearby New London Bay. It is very likely these early Islanders would have travelled here to hunt, fish or harvest shellfish., French and Acadian settlers began to arrive on the Island in the 1720’s when it was a French colony, Isle Saint Jean. Many inhabitants of the nearby village of Rustico are descendents of the Acadians who established that community in the 1760’s. ., By the 1770’s immigrants from the British Isles began to arrive on Prince Edward Island. In 1790, William Simpson and his wife Janet built the first known log cabin here near Clark’s Pond. John Macneil and William Clark settled soon afterward. Descendents of these Scottish families still live in Cavendish. ., Named for the Frederick Lord Cavendish, the community was a very different place when these settlers first arrived. They were greeted by towering, thick forests that had to be cleared to create farmland. The soil proved an excellent bed for many crops, especially grain and potatoes. As farms became established, the central institutions of a rural community – church, schoolhouse, stores, and post office -- began to appear. ., From 1870, Alexander and Lucy Macneil operated the community post office in their home. In 1876 their one-year-old granddaughter, Lucy Maud Montgomery, came to live with them. Growing up in Cavendish provided Montgomery with a career’s worth of inspiration. All but one of her writings are set on Prince Edward Island, including her most-famous. “Were it not for those Cavendish years,” she later said, “I do not think Anne of Green Gables would ever have been written.” The Alpine Path, p.52.,