The Hidden Village of Clementsport

Once a bustling hub of shipbuilding and industry, the village of Clementsport, Nova Scotia, now holds much of its history in memory. But thanks to a powerful blend of storytelling and digital mapping, its past has been brought back into view.In this episode of Geographical Thinking, we sit down with Fionnuala Braun, the creator of The Hidden Village of Clementsport StoryMap, and her father, Scott Digweed, volunteer archivist with the Clements Historical Society. Together, they reflect on the process of uncovering lost stories, digitizing community memory, and mapping what no longer stands. We explore what it means to map absence, how imagination plays a role in digital history, and what it felt like to have the project recognized as a finalist in Esri’s 2024 StoryMaps competition.This episode is a tribute to community memory, grassroots storytelling, and the evolving ways we can engage with place—even places that seem to have disappeared.