Dartmouth historian offering walking tours

David Jones is 25 years old. And he knows more about Dartmouth than most people three times his age.

That’s why he is starting his business in Dartmouth, and about Dartmouth.

He will be conducting historical and fun walking tours throughout the area. He knows the city, knows the people and believes tourists and residents alike will enjoy the experience of learning about the City of Lakes.

His year-long blog on Dartmouth has not only brought him attention, it has gotten nearly 21,000 views since he started, and has been visited by people from 10 countries, but it has given Jones the street cred to start his own business.

His resume is impressive. But so is his own history.

He has a double major in history and anthropology from Saint Mary’s University. His interests are many, but he has a special love for Nova Scotia colonial history and historical landscape archaeology. When not blogging or preparing for a Dartmouth history walk, he helps retired geophysicist Duncan McNeill with conducting geophysical surveys of regional archaeological sites.

In early May he was asked to give a historical walking tour of the Lake Banook area as part of the Jane’s walk series.

“I loved it. Forty-two people attended and I included information in the tour of my personal connection with the lake, the judge’s tower is named after my uncle, how Banook is tied into a world legacy of paddling championships and how it played a pivotal role in the creation of ice hockey. I had good feedback. There were people on the walk from Germany and people of all ages. It was my first formal opportunity to share what I love. Someone came up to me after the tour and said I should start a business. So here I am.”

Later that month he gave a talk at the Dartmouth Heritage Museum Society’s AGM on the Sawmill River. He now sits as a member of the museum’s board of directors.

Ever since he was a small child he started to question those around him. His interest was the history of Dartmouth.

Fortunately for him, he didn’t have to look too far for his answers. Jones comes from a family that always took its history very seriously. And they loved to tell stories.

“My great grand-uncle, Dr. John P. Martin, was the town historian of Dartmouth and author of The Story of Dartmouth.

My great grandfather, Frank Martin, Dr. John P. Martin’s brother, lived to be 100, was a life-long resident of Dartmouth, and was named Citizen of the Year in 1980. It was a combination of Frank Martin’s stories of early hockey games on Lake Banook and Dr. John P. Martin’s historical research which inspired my father, Martin Jones married to Ann Jones, to write Hockey’s Home.”

His grandmother, Marie Jones, is the daughter of Frank Martin and the niece of Dr. John P. Martin.

“She is my biggest Dartmouth history fan. Her son, the late David M. Jones, is the namesake of both the David M. Jones Memorial Judge’s Tower and yours truly, David Jones, the Dartmouth historian. My grandfather is also named David Jones. I get my story-telling style from the way he tells beautiful stories about growing up in Rockingham and raising a family in Dartmouth. My mother’s grandfather was a history professor who, like me, studied Nova Scotia’s colonial history.”

He hopes his walking tours become successful. When he is not walking he will be paddling with the Beasts at Dragonboat East and maintaining his blog.

“By giving the tours, I hope to fund graduate-level studies that incorporate both history and archaeology. That is the career I want. I am surrounded by a family who love history and love their community and so do I.”

To contact David Jones for a walking tour at 902-441-6002 or [email protected].