There is a feeling of pride as volunteers with the Minudie Heritage Association dig through artifacts that fill the shelves and boxes of the society's archives.

From personal letters to artwork, the items shed light on past lives and histories of the small Cumberland County community, which sits about eight kilometres from River Hebert.

The once-bustling Minudie was home to about 600 people in 1871, but while the dikes built by Acadians and three churches still stand, just a handful of homes remain scattered amidst the farmland.

Sharon Gould, the association’s president who has roots in Minudie, said there’s been a decades-long effort to preserve the community’s history, which has piqued the interest of community descendants from near and far.

“We have people in the United States asking us to help search for their families here," Gould said in an interview.

“I wish my father was living so he could see what his family talked about and how we are bringing it to the forefront."

The community’s history has also drawn the attention of Cassandra Burbine, a Halifax-based archivist originally from River Hebert.

She interviewed members of the association as part of her research in the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University, focusing on how community archives can create a sense of belonging, particularly in de-industrialized communities.

“One of my participants actually said that growing up, they felt like the world was going on and history was going on, but they weren't a part of it,” said Burbine.

“I think accessing local histories through your community archive can just show you that just because you were from a smaller place doesn't mean that history did not happen. And that's important, because if history can happen, then progress and future developments can happen."

On Saturday, Burbine presented her work at the Minudie Heritage Association archives which is in the process of cataloging thousands of artifacts that tell the community's story.

The vast majority of the artifacts came from the Amos Thomas Seaman House which was willed to the association in 2015.

There are over 3,000 business and personal letters, about one thousand books, more than 200 paintings and countless other items in the archives, according to board member Naomi Kirkbride.

“I find this stuff so interesting, I do," Kirkbride said of her seven years of volunteer work.

"I read these letters and I'm going, 'Are you kidding? Is that really what happened? Is that what they did?'"

For example, Kirkbride said diaries shed light on routine shipments of grind stones, wheat and boards to Boston, but also include stories of unique cargo.

“They shipped mud off the marsh because they were doing experiments on it in Boston. They want to know what ingredients are in this,” she added. 

Kirkbride hopes someday the Minudie archives can be made publicly accessible online, so the community's history lives on in the digital age.

For Gould, there is also something to be said about bringing the community back to life through summer time events such as Acadian Days. She said there's particular emotion when the bells in each of the church steeples come to life.

“They ring the bells and the sound of all the beauty rings out across the marshes, the dikes, the river — the same land the people settled here many years ago," she said.