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 mouth. No directions would avail for this channel, and the assistance of one of the able pilots of the place is indispensable, and will be readily obtained in answer to the usual signal. The "schoolhouse" design Pugwash Lighthouse was built in 1871 on Fishing Point at the entrance to Pugwash Harbour. The last keeper left in 1959, and by 2017 the building was in severe disrepair. The village of Pugwash (Pagwe'ak in the Mi'kmaq language) was settled in the later part of the 1700s by settlers from New England who were given land grants by the Nova Scotia government, and