Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland

 

The star-shaped earthen ramparts of what

 was once Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland

His Majesty's Yankees

As a youth, I noticed a copy of His Majesty's Yankees by Thomas H Raddell on my parents' bookshelf and decided to read it. I don't know how or why my parents acquired it for the family library, because I don't think anyone else in the family ever read it.

I'd stumbled across a gem. Thomas H Raddell (1903 - 1994) is an award-winning Canadian author. His Majesty's Yankees is one of his best-known works. It is a historical novel set around the time of the American Revolutionary War as a backdrop. It includes a vivid account of the American assault on strategic Fort Cumberland. It is written from a distinct Nova Scotian perspective. I wrote a review here: https://picosbookreviews.blogspot.com/2026/04/his-majestys-yankees.html

Visiting this historic site with my family brought that part of the novel alive. I enthusiastically shared the memory with my children. We decided to play the part of the attacking American volunteers and scaled the ramparts. There we were, all shot dead by the imaginary defenders as we crested the walls. This bit of fun helped cement a historic lesson in everyone's minds.

Artillery pieces displayed just outside the entrance to the fort.

The View From the Fort

Two European Empires Collide

Fort Beausejour was built during Father Le Loutre's War between the French and British. The war lasted from 1751 to 1755. Construction of the fort began at the beginning of that conflict on a ridge overlooking the north end of the Bay of Fundy. A rival British fort, Fort Lawrence, was built on a smaller ridge further east. The fort's strategic position was intended to protect the land route between Quebec and Louisbourg.

In 1755, British troops, along with New England militia forces, attacked and captured the incomplete fortress. The British recognized that the French had built a better-located and better-constructed fort than they had. They promptly renamed it Fort Cumberland and abandoned Fort Lawrence. The Battle of Fort Beausejour is considered by historians to be the beginning of the final conquest of New France by the British.

Because the Acadians, who felt caught in the middle of the conflict, refused to swear allegiance to the British crown, the British began to deport them. The fort was used as a place to hold prisoners before deporting them. Le Grand Derangement is a dark period in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia's history. Many Acadians were relocated to Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns.

One bit of information that I find is often overlooked when reading about the struggle between France and Britain in North America is that the French were heavily outnumbered during the conflict. They fought hard but just didn't have the manpower to hold this territory.

Location

The southward-facing stone wall was added by the British

 after the fort was captured and renamed in 1755

The American Revolution Stops Here

The Battle of Fort Cumberland happened during the American Revolutionary War. This pivotal battle again helped shape the future of North America. Had Fort Cumberland fallen to the Americans, Nova Scotia could have become the fourteenth colony in the American Union. Canada as we know it today probably would not exist.

After the defeat of New France, Fort Cumberland lost a great deal of its importance, and it wasn't long before the site was abandoned and fell into disrepair. That all changed when the American colonies rebelled against the crown. Joseph Goreham arrived with troops to repair and defend the site while American sympathizer Jonathan Eddy scraped together a rebel militia to try to seize it for the revolutionary cause.

The besieging Americans lacked artillery and attempted to storm the fort several times. Goreham's men successfully repelled each attack until reinforcements arrived to drive off the Patriot militia. Nova Scotia remained strongly loyal throughout the rest of the conflict.

Stone foundation of one of the buildings that had been

 inside the fort walls.

Relevant One Last Time

After the American Revolutionary War, Fort Cumberland was once again abandoned and fell into disrepair. In 1812, the United States and the British Empire decided to have one last go at each other.

Because of its strategic location, Fort Cumberland was quickly restored and garrisoned. Most of the War of 1812 was fought in the Great Lakes region. With the British occupying part of the State of Maine, no significant military action occurred in the area.

Guarding Nova Scotia's back door was an important role. Any American attack through this land route would have threatened Halifax, which was the most important British-controlled harbour in maritime Canada. The Americans were never in a position to mount an invasion in this part of the country. Fort Cumberland helped make sure of that.

Fort Beausejour Museum and Visitor Centre

A Worthwhile Visit

For us, visiting Fort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland was an enjoyable, inexpensive afternoon. Our visit occurred during the off-season. The museum itself was closed, and I'm sure there are a large number of artifacts worth seeing there. We didn't see any of that, but we also didn't have to spend a dime on admission.

Obviously, from the photos, anyone can see that the fort itself is a ruin. The earthworks are intact, and most of the stone parts of the buildings and fort are still there as well. There are numerous plaques to explain everything. We had no difficulty self-guiding our tour through the site.

It was fascinating to tour a place that had such a significant impact on the history of North America. If you're interested in this type of history, it is worth a stop along the way to visit.

Slideshow of Additional Photos

Official Website for Fort Beausejour

• beausejour
  Find information on Canada's National Historic Sites, National Parks, National Marine Conservation Areas, and on other cultural and natural heritage-related topics.

The Shipwreck

 

Summer Geology Lesson

Our kids were participating in a summer craft class program for the local children in Silverwater, Ontario. My wife Francine and our children made friends with Mrs. Smith, the instructor, who was a long-time Manitoulin Island resident.

We decided to spend an afternoon hiking along the rocky beach at Cook's Dock with her. This was a moment to kill two birds with one stone. The kids would have a chance to study the local rocks with a knowledgeable guide, and we could pay a social visit to a friend. The afternoon provided us with more than we imagined it would.

Well into our walk, with our hands full of small, worn stones and sticks chewed by the local beaver population, we spotted a big rusty chunk of metal sticking out of the sand between the rocks. Mrs. Smith didn't know what it was, but she suggested we take it along so her husband could have a look at it. Eighty-plus-year-old Mr. Smith was born and raised on the island and might be able to shed a little light on what we had found. In the photo above, I'm holding it on my lap.

Mr. Smith had no difficulty identifying our mystery find. He said it was a steam valve from an old ship. Back when he was a boy, a ship bringing supplies to the local communities caught fire in the bay and sank. He said if you went out onto the bay in a boat when the water was calm, you could see the wreck resting on the bottom of the bay. We never got the opportunity to go out in a boat to have a look. When I first wrote this article, you could see a partial outline of the ship's hull on Google Maps if you switched to satellite mode.

He told us that the boat was also carrying a new pastor and his family for the local church. No one was killed in the sinking, but the church piano or organ went down with the ship. I haven't been able to confirm many of the details he gave us. Not a great deal of information is available online for this shipwreck. The disaster was a local problem, and there were no casualties, so of all the boats on the bottom of Lake Huron, this one hasn't gotten that much attention.

He also mentioned an abandoned village not far from Cook's Dock. We found that on another hike. There wasn't much to see, though. We were able to identify a few heavily overgrown basements, and that was it.

We left the steam valve with him. If I remember correctly, it was donated to the museum in Meldrum Bay, where there are the remains of an old sailing ship once thought to be the Griffon on display.

The S.S. Michipicoten

The Owen Sound Transportation Company Limited was formed in 1921 and acquired a vessel named the S.S. City of Windsor. They renamed it S.S. Michipicoten, an Ojibwe word meaning "big bluffs".

The ship was put into service as a freighter between Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie. Back in the 1920s, many of the communities along the north shore of Lake Huron and on Manitoulin Island were quite remote. These communities relied on this service for many of their supplies as well as shipping their own goods to markets further south.

On October 11, 1927, the Michipicoten caught fire on its way from Gore Bay and sank off Cook's Dock before unloading its freight. To lose a shipload of supplies that late in the shipping season was a serious loss for those communities.

I did locate a photograph of the ship, but the picture is from a private collection. Because of its age, it could well be considered in the public domain, but I don't want to break any copyright laws. I have begged my artist wife to do a drawing of it, which I would add at a later date. Failing that, I may attempt to do an artist rendition myself. The photo is available on this site: https://www.ontarioferries.com/100-years/

A later Great Lakes freighter named S.S. Michipicoten was built in 1952. It was sold for scrap, but sank in a storm while being towed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1972. I remember seeing the 1952 namesake traversing the Welland Canal while I was growing up.

Sources included Wikipedia, https://www.flickr.com/photos/23655958@N03/3271107470/, and the account from our friend Mr. Smith, who has since passed away.

The Racing Pigeon

 

The Heart of a Little Girl

My daughter Mieke and I found Buttercup flopping around in the grass near a shed close to the fence dividing our property from the pasture behind our home. We assumed the bird was female, but didn't know at the time. Her injuries were severe enough to prevent her from flying. She could walk - sort of. Our guess is that she clipped the top of the wire fence while flying and broke a few bones.

Maybe the kindest thing to do for the bird was to put it out of its misery. That's a hard lesson for a six-year-old girl. I gave her permission to get a box and care for the bird in the back shed. Mieke made a devoted nurse. The bird drank the water she brought and ate chicken feed. It didn't get any worse, but neither did it regain the ability to fly.

This arrangement worked well for quite some time. It might have taken a whole month before one of the local cats managed to break into the shed and finish poor Buttercup off.

The story would have ended there except my daughter fell in love with pigeons, and I was so impressed with her consistent care of that bird that we made arrangements for her to have a small flock to care for.

Pest or Partner

Linked with humans for millennia. We often have strong opinions concerning these birds.

• Winged rat, statue soiling, disease-carrying pest.

• Message carrying, beautiful, symbol of peace

Three Lessons Learned From Our First Flock

News of my daughter's desire to keep pigeons reached some friends of ours who captured the half dozen barn birds residing in their barn, boxed them up, and passed them on to us when we visited. We supplemented the flock with a couple of misfit birds from a breeder in a nearby town.

We housed them in a dilapidated shed on our property that we thought we had prepared adequately. We suspended a feeding station right in the middle of the shed, constructed nesting boxes, and attached them to the walls. Once they were accustomed to their new housing, we cut two holes above the door so they could come and go as they pleased.

Lesson 1

Pigeons mate for life and breed at an unbelievable rate. What we didn't know was that the six birds our friends gave us were three pairs of matched breeders. As soon as they settled in, they went to work.

Each pair built nests as fast as they could gather material and laid two eggs each. The male and female birds took turns sitting on the eggs. I found it fascinating to note that, depending on the time of day, either all the males were on the nests or all the females. That means that during the breeding season, if you see a small flock of pigeons flying together, they are likely either all males or all females.

After eighteen days, the eggs hatch. Both parents will feed the squabs pigeon's milk, which develops in the crops of the adult birds. This is not the most appetizing thing to watch.

Then comes the surprising part. While they are feeding the squabs, mom and dad start building another nest. While they are still feeding the first pair of youngsters, they will lay and brood another pair. They don't stop feeding the first pair until the second pair hatches. By this time, the first batch are full-size juveniles. Good breeders during the breeding season will produce a new pair of birds every five to six weeks.

It didn't take long for us to have to start thinking about curbing the birthrate or culling the flock.

Lesson 2

Pigeons are not as stupid as many people suppose. When you go to feed them, you are not just some human who brings them food. They know your face. They know your personality. They also recognize danger that you yourself might not have noticed.

I remember coming to the shed and noticing one of the males sitting on his eggs, while the rest of the males were strutting around by the food. None of the birds were out flying except for his missus.

For the next three days, the birds stayed in because there was a hawk roosting across the street. I didn't have to lock them in. They just didn't go out. Mister Pigeon stayed with his brood, and I was certain his mate had been hawk dinner.

After three days, the hawk gave up and left. Guess who came back? She hadn't been eaten. She was smart enough to stay away until the coast was clear.

I laugh sometimes when I see efforts in the city to scare pigeons away from storefronts. Fake birds of prey mounted on the roof. It only works for a short period of time. Pigeons are smart enough to figure that sort of thing out.

Lesson 3

Predator-proofing a pigeon loft is not an easy task. A purpose-built loft from reputable plans would be your best bet.

Our shed was not cat-proof. Not even the second time around. We had a neighbour across the street who fed every stray cat, that somebody abandoned out in the country, raccoon and skunk. I appreciate her kind heart, but her free-roaming menagerie was a major nuisance.

One morning, we found that they had broken into the pigeon loft. My daughter was heartbroken. So many of her birds were dead, and the remaining birds took up residence in a neighbouring barn.

This played out on the second morning after we managed to retrieve her flock in spite of our best efforts. We decided at that point to wait until we can afford to build a proper pigeon loft. For my daughter, the experience was too painful to be willing to risk going through that a third time.

Pigeon Catching Adventure

Catching pigeons would be easy if you had a moonless night and you could reach their roosts with your hands. Conditions are not always quite that ideal.

The moonless night just requires patience. During a new moon, the pigeons can't see and will stay put. The rest of the time, they will fly off as soon as you get close to them.

The neighbour's barn was not built for our purposes and was even more poorly maintained. The hayloft floor had collapsed, and the distance from where we were standing to where the pigeons roost was about thirty feet. I'm tall but not quite that tall.

We constructed a twenty-five-foot pole with a fishing scoop net duct-taped to the end. Canadian comedian Red Green would have been proud of me. Armed with flashlights, we went on the hunt. Hot, dusty, frustrated, waving that stupid pole around, we somehow recaptured the remaining survivors along with a very attractive extra. The frightened but uninjured birds were boxed up and brought home. It was an exhausting but rewarding night's work.

The Newcomer

That new bird was a handsome fellow. Black checker cock with white flight feathers, a splash of white across his grey belly, and a miniature "string of pearls" that went from one eye around the back of his head to the other eye.

My daughter and I were on our morning feeding run, pausing to admire his plumage, when I thought I saw something blue on his leg. Catching him in the cramped shed was a lot easier than our escapade the night before. Sure enough, he had a band on his leg. We'd caught a lost racing pigeon. We didn't let him go until we'd written down the band number.

Keep in mind, we had no real idea how to go about using this information, but in this case, Google was our friend. Within an hour and a half, we had tracked down the loft where he was hatched, gotten word to the owner of our discovery, and had a message back from him advising us that we could keep him, because he was just another lost loser. Children should be issued leg bands, too.

He graced our flock with his regal presence until the final episode with the neighbourhood cat problem.

The Moose Skull

 

Exploratory Hike

My family and I live on a bush lot at the very edge of the electrical power grid. There are cottages and hunt camps back in our neck of the woods, but we are the only human year-round residents. Wildlife is abundant, and the opportunities to explore and hike are limited only by our time, strength, and endurance.

My oldest son and I went for a hike to investigate one of the local overgrown logging roads. No one has travelled there in several years, so we had no idea what we would find. You might be surprised at the adventures that exist in your own neighbourhood, even if you are not living in the bush.

This logging road led to another one I didn't know about that led almost behind our acreage. On our way back off to the side, I noticed some bones and turned aside to investigate. Turned out to be a moose skull with a scattering of other bones. We decided, for the time being, to leave it where it lay.

During the rest of our walk, between talking with my oldest, my mind churned with ideas of what we might do with our discovery. What lessons or information could be drawn from a moose skull?

Retrieval

On returning to our cottage, I tantalized our youngest (our only remaining school-age child) with the story of finding the moose skull. I think he was interested in going to get it, whether he'd learn anything from it or not. What ten-year-old boy would not find that interesting?

Wesley and I returned to the site and gathered all the bones we could carry. Besides the skull, we collected a number of ribs, vertebrae, and a couple of undetermined fragments. All the way back with our prize, we discussed trying to figure out how old it was and what happened to it.

This was going to take a bit of research on the Internet. First, we had to figure out whether our goals were even attainable. Then we would make some educated guesses.

Moose (Alces alces)

These magnificent animals are the largest members of the deer family. Moose are huge with long, slender legs. The bulls can weigh up to 800 kg (1800 lbs).

They are often seen near water and are strong swimmers. Not only do they eat vegetation on land, but they can dive up to five metres deep to browse on the lake bottoms.

For more information about moose, the following links will be helpful.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/moose/

Aging a Moose Skeleton

The key to figuring out the age of a moose is its teeth. Every single resource we could find on aging a moose by its teeth involved the lower jaw. If you look at the pictures of our moose skull, you know that's one part we don't have. The factors used in determining age, though, still hold true for the upper teeth. The results won't be as accurate, though.

As rank amateurs, we were lucky. Our skull has important development markers that allow us to make an educated estimate.

In the photo above, I added lines and numbers to distinguish the separate teeth on the upper jaw. Notice that none of the teeth shows much wear. The first four teeth are fully positioned, while the fifth tooth has almost joined them. The sixth tooth is buried in the gum; in fact, I didn't even see it at first. In the picture,   the arrow is pointing to the hole where the tooth will emerge. It rattles around in there if you give the skull a shake.

What is important here is that moose have all their teeth by the time they are a year and a half old. This one does not. Tooth number five is close, but number six hasn't even started to come in. From this, we estimate that our moose was a youngster somewhere between six months and a year old. As an amateur, I'm pleased with that guess.

Not only were we able to determine the approximate age, but we also determined a plausible cause of death. The lower jaw is missing, and the widely scattered bones suggest that our moose was taken down by a pack of wolves. We hear them yowling at night sometimes.

Three winters ago, we had record snow accumulations in this area. For a significant part of the winter, the snow was more than three feet deep. It would have been a hard winter for a young moose. It isn't too much of a stretch to think that this would have happened that winter. The condition of the bones is consistent with that scenario.

This was a fascinating study and not just for our son Wesley.

Some of our sources are listed below:

http://www.all-about-moose.com/can-you-tell-a-moose-age-by-its-teeth.html

Living Close to Large Animals

We live in moose country. The tracks in the photo below were just down the road from our home. I did see the moose that made them. I wasn't close enough to take a picture. During the winter, there were tracks on the road right in front of where we live. Some day, I might get a picture I can add here, but I would never recommend approaching such a powerful animal.

An angry or frightened moose is a very dangerous animal. A bull moose's antlers speak for themselves. Not so obvious is the fact that a moose can kick hard enough to snap a five-inch log. They can do an impressive amount of damage to an automobile. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of one of those beatings.

This is a great site about moose:

• Moose: How and Where to Find these Majestic Animals
  Promoting moose education, conservation, and ecology, improve your hunting skills with hunting tips, strategies, and gear suggestions. Recipes for cooking are here, too.