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 the shafts running under the river near the village. As of 2010 the mine was still in operation, although there were doubts about its long-term future. Pugwash is known as the location of the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, where Bertrand Russell invited nuclear scientists from the USA, USSR and other countries to discuss world peace in July 1957. The conference was held at the Thinker's Lodge, built in the 1830s and owned by the millionaire Cyrus S. Eaton, who was born in Pugwash. The 1891 "Sailing Directions" says, "Pugwash River, immediately within the harbor,