About Colden

Colden traces its beginnings to the early 1820s, when settlers from the Stewiacke Valley began moving inland in search of farmland untouched by the earliest waves of Loyalist and Planter settlement. The name Colden first appeared on a local deed in 1826, attributed to Alexander Colden, a Scottish immigrant from Banffshire who had served briefly in the Nova Scotia Fencibles. However, local oral tradition claims the name was chosen not for the man but for the “cold den,” a shaded hollow along Colden Brook where early settlers built their first sawmill.