On the rugged coast of Nova Scotia, waves crash, gulls cry, and fog rolls in thick off the Atlantic. It’s easy to imagine that nothing has changed here in centuries—and at the Fortress of Louisbourg, it truly hasn’t.

At first glance, the name sounds exaggerated. A thousand islands? Come on. But then you see it — a horizon dotted with green-topped rocks, tree-crowned blips, mansion-laden isles — and you realize: “A thousand” barely covers it. The **Thousand Islands** region along the St. Lawrence River actually comprises over **1,864 islands**, each rising from the water like a secret waiting to be discovered.