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The St. Mary's River was named after the old French fort, Forte St. Marie, which was built by the French in 1654, at the lower end of Sherbrooke Villate . The fort was built, ostensibly, to protect the French fishermen and fur traders along the coast, but mostly Forte St. Marie was built to protect the French settlers who needed to come in and get their winter's supply of fish. The French didn't remain in Forte St. Marie very long. Five years later the British came and chased them out and the River has been predominately held and settled by the British since 1669.
 Above the tide, the river flows 16 kms roughly north to Melrose where it branches into the East and West branches. Its headwaters originate in five separate counties, namely Guysborough, Antigonish, Pictou, and even parts of Hants and Halifax Counties.
At one time, the river carried a fair portion of the commerce of Nova Scotia. Beautiful, two and three and even four masted sailing ships, carrying cargoes of lumber, mostly to the West Indies and the eastern seaboard of the United States, returning with cargoes of coal, salt, molasses, and odd bit of rum. Some ships were built at Sherbrooke, Sonora, and at St. Mary's River, and they eventually found their way all over the world.
Around 1930, sail gave way to steam and the long lumber gave way to pulp wood. The ships that began to come in for the pulp cargoes were mostly of Norwegian registry. Pulpwood was shipped down the river, mostly to the eastern seaboard of the United States and to Europe.
In the early 1900's some well-known anglers started coming to the St. Mary's River for the salmon fishing. They came from all over Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and parts of England.
Conservation on the River
Excerpts from an NSNT article Written by Amy Web
The St. Mary’s River Association teams up with the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to promote an innovative Watershed Protection Project.
The Nova Scotia Nature Trust recently launched its St. Mary’s River Conservation Legacy Project, which will focus on private land protection through donations, easements, and stewardship. NSNT first became interested in the St. Mary’s forests, recognizing that some of the province’s last remnants of old-growth hemlock grace the river’s shores. As well, Nova Scotia’s largest and least disturbed examples of the original Acadian floodplain forest are found along the St. Mary’s. Most of these woodland ecosystems have been lost elsewhere in the province as river shorelines are modified by development, logging, and agriculture.
The St. Mary’s River is also home to the largest population of Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) in Atlantic Canada, and possibly in North America. The Wood Turtle has been listed both nationally and provincially as a “species of concern,” and is a conservation priority in Nova Scotia. And of course, the river is one of the last on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore to support significant populations of Atlantic salmon. 
Visit the Nova Scotia Nature Trust Website
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