The Hunter River starts in Hartsville and stretches to Rustico Bay. In the 1765 survey of PEI, Samuel Holland named the settlement after Thomas Orby Hunter, a deputy pay master to the English and Dutch troops. Legend, however, tells a different story.
          The story begins with a man named George Trueman. Trueman had a daughter named Inez who was fifteen years old at the time of the story. Both father and daughter lived in at a location a short distance away from the current site of Hunter River Village; a site that at that time was extremely isolated. In October 1806 a vicious storm wrecked a supply ship which was going past the home of the father and daughter. Trueman went down to the water to see if there were any survivors expecting to find none. Much to his surprise a young boy of perhaps sixteen years old was found clinging to the wreckage. The boy whose name was Fred Hunter joined the little family and they lived happily for several years. In that ensuing time Inez and Fred had fallen in love and were to be married. Unfortunately before they could finalize their plans Hunter was called to war. (The war of 1812) His post was along one of the most dangerous battlefields, the front lines on the Niagara River. He was wounded in battle and spent the next winter recuperating from his wounds. In the meantime a wrongful report had somehow been sent to the Truemans that Hunter had been killed. 
          In the spring a man name Jack Seymour, a son of a gentleman had come to see the then wild lands of the North American Continent. Thinking Hunter dead Inez began again to fall in love, this time with Seymour. Meanwhile Hunter was on a ship back home. Before he could reach his home the ship was captured by the French and all of the soldiers on the ship were held until the end of hostilities in 1815. Hunter arrived on a snowy day in the late fall. Sadly by then it was too late. Hunter arrived just in time to witness the wedding between Inez and Jack. Realizing that their was nothing left for him here Hunter left, likely planning to rejoin the army. Fate was not kind, however as the exhaustion and cold were too much for him and he expired. The stream near where he was found was named Hunter's River. If the legend is to be believed this stream is what is now flowing through the center of the Village of Hunter River. A fact which supports the legend is that up to 1970 or so the post office still proclaimed Hunter's River and the fact that there is records of a man named Fred Hunter who lived and died in Hunter River. However his true terms of death are unknown.