Since markets for the hay harvested on the marshes were largely external, shippers and transportation connections played a crucial role in ensuring that the local economy remained dynamic. Local merchants who had begun to deal in the sale of agricultural produce recognized the value of having good shipping connections and by the mid-1840s had been active in the construction of a public wharf on the Tantramar River. In 1847 local merchants petitioned the provincial legislature seeking "free port" status for Sackville to improve its competitive position for importing, exporting and distributing goods in the region. Through much of the second half of the 19th century, the port of Sackville provided one means for goods move into the coastal shipping system. In spite of the significant tidal range, which left vessels perched on the mud at low tide, small schooners and scows were able to navigate up the Tantramar River to the port of Sackville. These vessels, many of which were constructed in local shipyards, connected with larger regional ports, such as Saint John and by this means hay and other agricultural products might enter a larger seaboard supply stream. The coming of the Inter-colonial Railway in 1872, which passed through Sackville and Amherst as it crossed the marsh provided a new and in many ways more regularly scheduled means for moving goods. In time the railway’s superiority as a regional and inter-regional carrier led to the decline of the Port of Sackville. The final blow came in the period from 1913to 1922 when the inevitable affects of unrelieved siltation and storm damage caused the course of the river on which the Port of Sackville was located to be so altered that ships could no longer reach the port’s wharf. Thereafter the railway and a progressively improved regional highways system served to provide transportation services for the local economy. Not surprisingly shippers such as the Sackville Hay and Feed Company, first founded in 1903 and later expanded in 1913 to become the Eastern Hay and Feed Company, located their operations alongside the railway in Sackville and Amherst. There were also depots strategically placed at points such as Aulac midway between Sackville and Amherst so that farmers need not haul their hay as far as these towns.

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