Buried Treasure
A magnet for history buffs, the Fortress of Louisbourg is where expert and amateur archaeologists alike can get their hands dirty
In a dimly lit warehouse at the Fortress of Louisbourg (fortress.uccb.ns.ca), experts sort through artifacts excavated by amateur archeologists. What they discovered was intriguing: The treasure trove was the result of a one-week dig on the property of a merchant called de la Vallière, who had lived in the outpost in the 1750s. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of pieces of glass had writing scratched on them. But here was the most interesting fact: the writing was in English. Odd, for a French fortress.
The Louisbourg archeologists believe that after English troops captured the fortress in 1758, they showed their contempt for the vanquished French by scratching messages of victory along with their signatures on the windows of the town—the equivalent of graffiti in the days before spray paint. It is one of the successes of the Public Archaeology Program, in which a dozen amateurs at a time pay $650 to visit the magnificently restored 18th-century fortress for a week and dig up a site such as Monsieur de la Vallière's backyard. "We were pretty sure we would find domestic artifacts at the de la Valliere yard like ceramics, wine glasses, buttons, and buckles, which we did," says Rebecca Duggan, a Fortress of Louisbourg archaeologist, "What we did not expect to find was a stone well, another interesting discovery. And the site holds many further surprises."
The Fortress of Louisbourg: pivotal in North American history
The program is an open door for history buffs to go beyond the printed page.
"The Public Archaeology Program is great," says Duggan, "because it allows people to experience the excitement of uncovering a piece of history and to become a part of the Louisbourg story." The sessions are five days long, and participants are introduced to the concepts of historical archaeology, field work, and the research that precedes and follows field work. "It's important to understand that archaeology is more than just digging—it's a comprehensive study of past cultures based on what people have left behind."
As of last spring, there had been six such sessions, and the amateur diggers had uncovered over 10,000 pieces. The program is successful because of the park's accessibility, says Mark Sajatovich, a Parks Canada marketing officer for Cape Breton. There are similar archeo-tourism projects in Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey, but Cape Breton offers North American tourists lower travel costs and, in many cases, greater personal security and safety.
The dig planned for the summer of 2008 will once again take place at the de la Vallière site (to examine the 1720s stone well and move onto other areas that haven't been examined yet). In addition, the amateur archeologists will have the option to enjoy behind-the-scenes tours, historic wine-tastings, and siege tours which will include the new "Wolfe's Redoubt" exhibit outside the Fortress' walls where English Brigadier–General James Wolfe had his camp during the siege of 1758, exactly a quarter of a millennium ago (see sidebar Wolfe and the second siege).
It's just one part of the commemorations planned for the 250th anniversary of the second siege. The park staff is also planning to recreate battles on the weekend of July 25, with the assistance of troupes of "encampment" specialists, history buffs who don period costumes to recreate battles. (In 1995 the park did something similar for the 250th anniversary of the first siege, and some 30,000 people watched.)
"To have hundreds of re-enactors in costume really brings the site to life," says Sandy Balcom, the fortress's acting manager of cultural resources. "You see a living town." According to Balcom, the encampment weekend, which will include a night-time battle, will be spectacular. He adds that the commemoration is important because the second siege was one of the major events determining that North America would become a British rather than a French possession. "Without the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, it's doubtful that Quebec would have fallen a year later, so you would have had a different chain of events," says Balcom. "It has importance in Canadian history, North American history, and world history."
Wolfe and the second siege
One of the most important dramatic periods in the history of the fortress was its second siege. By 1758, the forest around Louisbourg had been cut down for construction materials and firewood, and as a defensive measure, leaving the fortress and its activities open for scrutiny. After a dramatic landing on a beach near Louisbourg in June of that year, a massive army of British soldiers started the long process of setting up camps and slowly advancing toward France's stronghold in Atlantic Canada.
A central figure in the assault landing and the siege that followed was Brigadier–General James Wolfe, who made his base a hilltop overlooking Louisbourg harbour where he could watch the entire theatre of war: the French fortress, British siege batteries, and adjacent coastline. From that commanding position, Wolfe oversaw a successful capture of Lighthouse Point and subsequent bombardment of French ships in the harbour.
"The second siege of Louisbourg, and Wolfe's part in it, was a turning point in history," says historian John Johnson and author of Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade. "It marked the beginning of the end of French colonial power in Atlantic Canada and led directly to the deportation of Acadians from what is today Prince Edward Island." Wolfe went on to great renown as the Major–General who defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, where he died just as victory was achieved.
Inside Wolfe's camp, Parks Canada archaeologists have already discovered wells dug for water and stone-lined features that may have been roads. "Some of the features can't be fully understood without doing further excavation," says Parks Canada archaeologist Charles Burke. "Although it is not much more than a rectangle of earthen walls in what is now a thick forest, the camp is 250 years old, and unearthing what's there is important and leads to exciting finds."
The historical record of the life and times at Louisbourg is very well known, perhaps more than any other North American colony. French officials documented more than 700,000 pages of information and left behind about 500 maps and various plans. So far, archaeologists have unearthed about five million artifacts. With a quarter of the original town rebuilt, the Parks Canada–operated historic site is also North America's largest reconstructed site. "Louisbourg is one of Canada's major battlegrounds in the long Anglo–French rivalry in northeastern North America," says Johnson.
Abundance of riches
The Public Archaeology Program and 1758–2008 commemorations are the latest aspects of the rich spectrum of current tourism developments in this one small corner of Cape Breton Island. Louisbourg now lays claim to the largest historical reconstruction in North America, a splendid redevelopment of Louis XV's costly outpost on the Atlantic coast. Soon it will also have a world-class resort.
Sydney–based CBI Cape Breton Island Developers Inc. has begun work on the Louisbourg Resort Golf & Spa, a $300-million golf destination featuring two signature courses (one called The Fortress) designed by former Masters and British Open champion Nick Faldo. Plans feature 400 luxury homes and a European–style spa. The homes, which will cost between $400,000 and $1 million, are due to be built over the next seven years.
Despite those grand plans, Louisbourg will always be known primarily for the fortress that King Louis expected to be able to spy growing over the horizon from Versailles. All of that extravagance is now buried beneath Cape Breton soil, the valuable pieces from the de la Vallière site proving just how rich the ground is with undiscovered artifacts.
In fact, the Public Archaeology Program was so successful that staff at the park wonders whether they can expand it to more than two sessions a year. The problem with additional sessions, says Sajatovich, is that the area is so rich with history that any acceleration of the pace of excavation will produce a deluge of artifacts; park officials don't know if they can handle the flood of items that would have to be cleaned, catalogued, analyzed, and stored.
Participants of the Public Archaeology Program at the Fortress of Louisbourg unearthed more than 10,000 artifacts last spring.
From an archeological perspective, the work at the park has merely scratched the surface. Consider the numbers: The de la Vallière property is one of about 50 reconstructed buildings at the fort, and the entire reconstruction only accounts for one-fifth of the French town of Louisbourg, so the other 80% is an untouched archeological site. That's not to mention the nearby woods, from which English forces staged two separate two-month-long sieges, nor Louisbourg Harbour, where nine French naval vessels were sunk.
As the community of modern day Louisbourg developed after the original fell, by fortune they did so a few kilometres north of the original site. That means that unlike other great 17th-century New World towns—Boston, New York, Quebec City—the land has been untouched for centuries. Which is exciting for budding archeologists, including one participant from last summer's group who cited in an anonymous evaluation that the experience was "an amazing time. I came in knowing nothing about archaeology. I learned so much about it and the fortress. It was the best vacation I've ever had."
— Peter Moreira
