Pugwash, Nova Scotia Pugwash, Nova Scotia Pugwash (2012 population: 736) is a village in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The village is home to fishing, salt mining, and small-scale manufacturing and is situated on the Northumberland Strait at the mouth of the Pugwash River. Pugwash takes its name from the native Mi'kmaq word, "Pagweak," meaning "Shallow Water", in reference to a reef near the mouth of the harbour, making navigation through the shallow waters difficult. Pugwash sits atop a salt deposit measuring 457.2 m thick and is home to the largest underground salt mine in Atlantic Canada, with shipments from its port, as
Pugwash River for tbe water, when I saw it, was thick with sawdust and buckwheat shells. McArthur's dam is without a ladder." In 1891 the Pugwash fisheries overseer A.M. Wills reported that the smelt fishery in his division was almost a failure. The run was abundant but the fish were too small for market. His report noted, "The main abuses to the fisheries were caused by mill refuse, old trees and sawdust. All the oysters taken in this division were caught in Pugwash River. and men who were raking there reported acres of grounds in the river so covered with sawdust they