New Brunswick·Roadside HistoryBefore traffic roundabouts and zipper merges there were ferries. At Outhouse Point, for example, Moncton was connected to what is now Riverview by a small ferry.People travelled across the Petitcodiac River in a small ferry in the 19th centuryOliver Pearson · CBC News · Posted: Oct 26, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThis map from 1862 shows a dotted line where the Outhouse ferry operated. ( Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center/Boston Public Library)The u-shaped bend in the Petitcodiac River may be familiar to residents of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview, but it was once the site of an important connector between the communities.In the 19th century, that section of the winding river had a curious name — Outhouse Point — the origin of which might not be what you’re thinking.When the river was wider and bridges didn’t exist, the point was a critical crossing point.History explorer James Upham said if you needed to cross from Moncton to what is now Riverview you had to go almost to Salisbury to find low enough water.That is until Simon Outhouse and his family built a platform that travelled back and forth across the river like a ferry would.Upham said the family and the name of the point are also connected.“Because this family lives here and because they get … ubiquitously associated with the spot because they’re running this ferry back and forth, this gets known as Outhouse Point,” said Upham.There was even a lighthouse named after the family that sat on the point until the 1950s.Assomption Boulevard looked a little bit different in the summer of 1899. Trading and shipbuilding happened around the same time the railway became prominent. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives/P13-48)Upham said a map from the 19th century even charts the path of the ferry, which departed Moncton from around Bore Park.“You see a little little house and Simon Outhouse. And then you look at the map a little closer and there’s a little dotted line that goes across the Petitcodiac and that’s the ferry service that they ran.”But the Outhouse ferry wasn’t anything like mordern-day ferries.“It’s a wooden boat and later versions of it had a motor. But the early days, people were paddling and rowing their way around here.”Upham said this mode of travel wasn’t necessarily safe and people had to “kind of take their lives in their hands for a couple of minutes and hop in a little boat.”LISTEN | James Upham visits Outhouse Point:Information Morning – Moncton8:47The history of Riverview’s Outhouse Point is not what you think.James Upham is our Roadside History columnist. You can find more of his stories at cbc.ca/roadsidehistory.ABOUT THE AUTHOROliver Pearson is a reporter at CBC New Brunswick. He can be reached at oliver.pearson@cbc.caWith files from Information Morning Moncton
Before the bridges: how Outhouse Point helped connect Moncton and Riverview
