Beaubassin National Historic Site

General view of the site of Beaubassin with the Cumberland Basin in the background

Fort Lawrence Road, Fort Lawrence, N.S.

 
ACADIAN SETTLEMENT OF BEAUBASSIN
1672-1775
In 1672, Jacques Bourgeois and other settlers from Port Royal founded the Acadian village of Beaubassin in this strategic area overlooking the Cumberland Basin at the head of the Bay of Fundy. The settlement thrived and became part of an extensive trading network.In 1750, the French burned the village in the face of the advancing British under Major Charles Lawrence and withdrew across the Missiguash where they built Fort Beauséjour in an attempt to keep the territory west of the Missiguash under French control. A monument to the Acadian Village of Beaubassin lists the known names of the last inhabitants of the village.

The British took over the Fort Lawrence ridge and built Fort Lawrence close to the site of the destroyed village of Beabassin.
In 2005 an area of 43.36 hectares of the Beaubassin site was designated a “National Historic Site of Canada”.Signage advises that “Parks Canada is conducting an archaeological survey to further our understanding of the national significance of the former Acadian settlement of Beaubassin established in the early 1670s, and of Fort Lawrence, built by the British in 1750.” Remains of structures belonging to the Acadian village have been uncovered.

The use of metal detectors and removal of artifacts of any kind from the site is strictly prohibited.

Signage designating this as “Beaubassin National Historic Site of Canada” 

 
Beaubassin National Historic Site of Canada on Canada’s Historic Places web site.

Surette, Paul, Atlas of the Acadian Settlement of Beaubassin 1660 to 1775: Mésagouèche and LaButte (Sackville, N.B.: Tantramar Heritage Trust, 2015).

LeBlanc, Joan, “Beaubassin Gets National Historic Site Designation,” Sackville Tribune-Post, 26 March 2003, p. A-16.

Hamilton, Bill, “Chronicling the rise and fall of Beaubassin,” Sackville Tribune-Post, 4 June 2008, p.24.

Ross, Ryan, “Digging for history in Beaubassin,” Sackville Tribune-Post, 23 July 2008

 

Tantramar Heritage Trust | Historic Sites