BEAUBASSIN - Site Rediscovered

Thursday, June 22, 2000 - The Halifax Herald Limited - http://www.herald.ns.ca -

Acadian site near Amherst needs protection - groups
By Tom McCoag / Amherst Bureau

Fort Lawrence - A pasture near the provincial border here looks like any other farmer's field, but a recently discovered aerial photo has local groups urging the federal government to preserve the site. The hand-coloured, infrared military photo taken in 1958 shows the foundations of 40 buildings that once were Beaubassin, an Acadian village the French destroyed 250 years ago during the opening salvos of a war that ultimately saw England wrest control of North America from France.

Established in 1671, Beaubassin was on the Nova Scotia side of the Missaguash River. It was the second Acadian village to be established after Port Royal and, with 22 families, was one of the largest such settlements. In the early 1700s the river became a disputed boundary separating French and English territory. The Acadian village was caught in the middle of the dispute because Beaubassin was on the English side of the border. The French burned the settlement in 1750 when English military forces arrived to establish Fort Lawrence. They wanted to keep the buildings out of English hands and to force its Acadian inhabitants to move to the French side of the river.

The English built Fort Lawrence near the site of the burned village. It was from there, on June 4, 1755, that the English launched their successful conquest of French North America when Lt. Col. Robert Monckton led 300 English regulars and 1,950 New England troops on nearby Fort Beauséjour. The fight lasted 12 days before the French surrendered the fort on June 16, 1755. The Acadian expulsion began less than two months later when captives from Fort Beauséjour were imprisoned in Fort Lawrence.

The Fort Lawrence Heritage Association's efforts to have the 52-hectare (135-acre), privately owned Beaubassin site preserved began about a year ago when Gerald Trenholme gave the group the aerial photo. Group members showed the picture to Mr. Casey, a history buff, who immediately recognized its historical significance. "This field, because it has been pastureland since the village was destroyed in 1750, is relatively undisturbed. That means there should be a lot of important artifacts there that only a proper archeological dig can uncover. That's why the federal government needs to protect the site," the MP said.

"Beaubassin is important to the history of North America because what happened (there) started a chain of events that ended up changing the geopolitical face of the continent," Bernard LeBlanc, curator of the Acadian Museum, said in an interview.

SOURCE: http://genforum.genealogy.com/monckton/messages/11.html