The Historic Town of Parrsboro was originally located at nearby Partridge Island. In 1784, Admiral John Parr, Governor-General of Nova Scotia, granted its present site, then known as Mill Village, to the residents. The town was relocated and renamed Parrsboro. Many of its stately homes were built in the 1800's. The town was incorporated in 1889. The prime industries of this town of 1600 are tourism, blueberries, strawberries, metal fabrication and forestry.

In 1985, the biggest fossil find in North America was unearthed on the North Shore of the Minas Basin near Parrsboro. This discovery consisted of more than 100,000 pieces of 200 million year old fossils, the largest single collection of fossils, the first such collection found in North America and the first fossils in a series of dinosaur footprints, each the size of a penny, which are the smallest ever discovered.

The Minas Basin is one of the locations of the world's highest tides, and their dramatic effect on shipping can be seen from the Parrsboro wharf when fishing boats and pleasure vessels are left stranded high and dry by the low tide. At high tide water fills the harbour and reaches the mouth of the small creek that runs under the main street.

Around the corner from the Town Hall located in the centre of town is a giant statue of Glooscap, the mythical Mi'kmaq warrior who, legend says, created the Fundy tides and scattered the gems (his grandmother's jewelry) along the Minas Shore. The legend of Glooscap lives along this travel way of high tides, semi-precious stones and million-year old fossils. Glooscap ruled the Micmacs long before the white man and his powers of magic control the mighty tides of Fundy, or so the story goes.

The Ottawa House By-The-Sea Museum, located 3 miles from downtown, was once owned by Sir Charles Tupper, MD, a distinguished Nova Scotian Politician who was Prime Minister of Canada for 16 days in 1896. Ottawa House is open as a Museum and has displays on shipbuilding, early education and the Victorian era. From the veranda of Ottawa House you see Partridge Island, which is now joined to the mainland. In 1869, during a ferocious storm known as the Saxby Gale, storm waters drove the beach inland, creating a large bar that connected the island to the mainland.

While in Parrsboro, you can walk on the bottom of the sea when the tide goes out, stroll along miles of nearby beaches where agate, amethyst, fossils and minerals are abundant.

Visit the geological and historical museums where you can see dinosaur replicas and explore romance of the bygone shipbuilding era along the Minas Shore.

The Parrsboro Shore is a favourite area for nature lovers, with many hiking trails, eco-tour look off locations and abundant areas for bird watching. Dramatic cliffs cascade into the sea, islands provide homes to a host of seabirds - unrivalled scenic beauty everywhere you turn.