Culture and history

Fort Gaspareaux National Historic Site (designated in 1920), renamed Fort Monckton when it became British after the fall of Fort Beauséjour, is nationally significant based on its role in the struggle between France and Britain for North America in the 1750s.

Built by French troops in 1751 to prevent the English from penetrating the Chignecto Isthmus, Fort Gaspareaux served particularly as a provisioning base for the forts of Acadia.

When, on the 17th of June, 1755, Fort Beauséjour capitulated to General Monckton’s army, M. de Villeray, having only 19 soldiers at Gaspareaux was also forced to surrender. Colonel John Winslow took possession of the fort in Monckton’s name. Its poor condition, together with its general strategic unimportance, led the English to burn it in September, 1756.