It doesn’t take long upon arriving on Deer Island to feel that it's an easy guess as to how the Island got its name. Drivers may find themselves braking soon after leaving the ferry and then several more times, to avoid the winsome creatures. The common comment is “no-wonder this Island is called Deer Island!”
“Awwww! There’s a mommy deer and her baby!” you may exclaim. There’s no denying their beauty. Yes, there are many of the sweet doe-eyed lovely ladies, their fawns as well as their buck-horned mates roaming through the mazes of easily identifiable paths over every hill and dale on the Island.
It turns out that not everyone feels positive about the constant traffic of the four-legged creatures and their unwelcome visits to their lawns. Garden growers and flower lovers would refer to the Island's deer as pests, a nuisance, and other such names. You might hear more creative names verbalised when even the most “resistant” plant varieties have been munched. Fawns have to learn somehow that they don’t like lavender, cornflowers, and other notable deer resistant varieties by trying them once; this being a conclusion that some of us have come to while shaking our heads in sorrow over the newly purchased and newly munched deer resistant shrubs and flowers we have so tenderly planted again.
Fences, scarecrows, repellents, netting, sprinklers, rotten egg and water, soap spray, and hot pepper spray, bars of deodorant soap, dog hair - there are no end of possibilities to try and those that have been tried to deter our cute friends. They have no problem being caught red-handed or seen munching garden produce and expensive, beautiful flowers. They also leave gifts of their sign to let the property owner know of their visit - again.
It’s the right name for the Island - that’s for sure, but Deer Island wasn’t named yesterday. “Moose Island'' is also nearby and “The Wolves” are a grouping of three islands also within the Fundy archipelago. History tells a similar, but older story as to the naming of Deer Island.
The Island was named Eduki‑m‑minik by the local peoples of the Passamaquoddy, interpreted as, “deer‑his‑island.” So maybe the more surprising detail is that deer have been on Deer Island and renowned for their population from the early days of habitation on this much-loved Island.
Therefore, the “it’s no-wonder” line is an appropriate one when it comes to the island being named Deer Island!
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