10—Theldmder Chariottetown Sat. June. 30 1990

By Jim Cody

s ome people might find a degree of diffi—

culty doing a community profile of Pan- mure Island, because for most people, Panmure Island is an experience more than a community.

This serene Island hamlet on the eastern coast of P.E.I. is year-round home to about 10 families, and due to its beach, friendly warmth and uncluttered beauty, its population swells most disproportionately during the good weather.

The community is some 15 kilometres east of Monta- gue in Kings County. The closest gas station is in Stur— geon. There’s “a” store in Murray Harbour North.

“There’s nothing here (in Panmure Island) — just houses and beaches and the park,” smiles resident Sun- day Campbell, who has just set up for an afternoon on the beach with representatives of four area families.

They call it “the best beach on the Island," always an argua le point, but an opinion shared by many Islanders and tourists alike. Debby Steele, the other adult in a party comprised mainly of children, says while Panmure Island is somewhat out of the way, and not known by many tourists, “once they do know this beach, they will come back. ”

, , d bRARE ANIf) t(IIIEN'I'LE PLAdCE l

” , " It is un ou tedly one o ose rare an gent e spots in 9"? afld ”9/98 08”” IOVO '0 f8"?! and k99P horse: "*9 ”'9” the world, posessing for some a spiritual quality in its 5e unusual "curly”horsos originan'ng from the Mowing" steppes renity. A c oudy or even rainy day on the beach at Pan-

1 \3

mure Island can still have its own magic.

Generally pronounced “Pammure” Island “n”), the 800~acre community is no longer an isl sea redefined it geographically by washing up a . t0 the mainland and government followed up by ing with the natural causeway with rock and soil a highway onto the Island.

Members of the Andrew MacDonald famil W original Panmure Island settlers, establis inl around 1805, apparently to harvest trees and sell . to the British for shipbuilding. Eventually expert shipbuilders came to Kings County, realizing lculéeaper to build the boats here at the source of

r.

Places like Georgetown, Cardigan, Manta. Brudenell became centres for building some of I- sailing vessels of the da — bri and barquei, stance, outlined pictoria y in a k called ‘La by Nicolas J. de Jong and Marven E. Moore.

TRAVEL 0N LOW TIDE

The original settlers had to take. their pigs an across to and from the island at low tide or go bl Georgetown.

More Panmure Island families, like the Camp» the Steeles, arrived after the turn of this century ,

Gertrude Partridge is a relative newcomer, re' the community from Ottawa with her husband But already she has become synonymous with '- munity, running federally and provincially for ' Democratic Party, serving as a former presideflt