BELL
HILL
AND OTHER SIGHTS IN THE ACADIAN COMMUNITY OF CANNING
formerly known as RIVIÈRE DES VIEUX HABITANTS.
On April 29,
2005 Roger Hétu, Ken Bellfountain, and Susan Surette-Draper,
members of the "Comité de la Cloche" of Les Amis
de Grand-Pré, drove to Canning and found themselves immersed
in the 1700's.
|
Their tour guide
for the afternoon was Lewis Hazel, a 70 something, retired backhoe
operator who had spent 51 years excavating and more years than that,
listening to his treasure-hunter father's tales.We
considered ourselves lucky to find such a knowledgeable source and
as he told us, he is one of the last people left in the area who
can remember and locate the sites he would lead us to.
In preparation
for our visit, Lewis had prepared a route, which would allow us
to follow the story and make interesting observations.
|
Photo
Susan Surette-Draper
|
Photo R. Hétu
|
At the foot
of the J Jordan Rd, Lewis pointed out the homes that have recently
been built on the land where formerly there had been an Acadian
cemetery. Children used to pick clover there.
The old railroad
bed snakes behind the houses and is still visible today. When it
was constructed, the railroad went right through the cemetery. We
were told that it is thought that the Acadians buried their dead
in the dyked lands, which permitted them to use it in the winter,
as there would have been no frost in the soil.
|
Lewis pointed
out the newly renovated house across the street that previous owners
had identified as the place where a 10x16 ft parsonage had once
been. They tried to preserve its foundation by building around it.
Subsequent owners
and the passage of time make it questionable if the present inhabitants
are aware of their location's previous vocation. Would they be interested
in knowing that a priest once had a modest living space and a small
sanctuary there?
|
Photo R. Hétu
|
Lucille Amirault
of Le Comité du Cimetière Sainte-Famille has told
us that similar situations existed in the Falmouth area during Acadian
times.
|
Driving along
the winding, narrow Habitant River, we were told that the Mi'kmaq
had spent time there because of the artifacts and implements that
were unearthed along its banks over the years.
|
Photo R. Hétu
|
Our
second stop was at the Habitant Cemetery, which dates back to the
1770's but our attention was drawn to what looked like the farm road
alongside. This road was known as the Old French Road and started
at a wharf on the riverside. Lewis told us of a ramp for off-loading
of Acadian boats with provisions for the long ago inhabitants. We
know that the Acadians were well known for their coastal navigation
ships that could maneuver where larger ships could not. On a windy
day like today, it would be a challenge for even the most skilled
of captains. |
Our guide was
also able to point to a place where he had worked on removing posts
for an old Acadian wharf, just across the inlet. It had become a
hazard to modern navigation.
How wise the Acadians must have been, to have placed a wharf in
this secluded spot.
|
Photo Susan Surette-Draper
|
As we continued
up the Pereau Branch Road, Lewis informed us that we were actually
driving on the "Old French Road". This is the same one
that was laid out in the late 1600's/early 1700's. It seemed so
logical, it is just straight up from the wharf!
We turned R
at the Blomidon Rd and then L at the Pereau Community Hall and Lewis
pointed out how the Acadians built their roads by following the
natural lay of the land. Instead of going straight up and across
the rolling hills, they built their road at thebase of the hills
and just followed the natural crests of the land.
|
NS Geomatic Data
Locator, (texte inséré:R. Hétu)
|
This
also seemed perfectly logical to us who know that this was the practice
of the Acadians when they built their dykes. They built smaller and
shorter dykes than today's and usually followed along the side of
rivers and streams as opposed to the more difficult mouths of rivers.
"Keep things easy and uncomplicated and go with the flow"
might have been their motto. |
Photo R. Hétu
|
At a stop sign
and a big shoe, we were facing the property at which, it has been
said, a church once stood.
Sometimes it
is hard to imagine something and this was one of those times. A
dug out hill and farm equipment was what we could see. As the story
goes, a man with a name that sounds like Bill Lousin/Losier/Lussier
had identified this site and brought Lewis's father there many times.
|
We
continued to drive and Lewis called our attention to the fact that
the "Old French Road", which he could trace, ran past the
side of the church, along the base of many hills and came out at Bell
Hill. |
NS Geomatic Data
Locator, (texte inséré:R. Hétu)
|
Photo Susan Surette-Draper
|
Arriving at
Bell Hill, we were shown where the bell was found. This coincides
with the yellow line of the road and the power poles on the down
slope of the road. Why would anybody bury a bell in the middle of
the road? Well, the road was much narrower then and it would have
been buried "beside" a much narrower road.
Interestingly,
the famous Sir Frederick Borden's family owned the farm nearby.
A famous hill, indeed.
The bell is
gone. Ed Coleman tells us in his article of Friday April 29, 2005
that it was discovered by men working on the road and that "an
Acadian bell is said to have been discovered about 75 years ago,
a few miles north or north-west of Canning in an area quaintly known
as Rabbit Square." Here we are!
|
If
the folklore is right, this bell should be found in Montreal in a
museum somewhere. We will have to continue our search. |
Could it be
that this is called Bell Hill because of its shape, as is suggested
by Leon Barron, a local history collector?
Buried bells
with or without the accompanying gold have been found and documented
in Port Royal, PEI, Upper Sackville, Maine and Cape Breton so why
not Bell Hill?
After following
the winding path of the "Old French Road", we may be ready
to believe the Acadian bell story but why was the church so far
from the cemetery and the river? Were there two churches? One for
the first settlers and another for the new families that established
themselves here as the community developed? Why was it so far inland?
|
NS Geomatic
Data Locator, (texte inséré:R. Hétu)
|
As we drove
to Woodside and turned at the yellow farm buildings of the Ells
farm and passed the newest valley crop of grapes sprouting new shoots,
we once again saw the "church" location but now, in this
perspective, nestled at the base of a ridge of hills, it was easy
to imagine.
|
Photo R. Hétu
|
Discussing the
location and surveying the surroundings, Lewis gave us another nugget
of information.
The landscape
has changed here since the time of the Acadians. The Pereau dyke
has restricted the flow of water so that what was once a river at
high tide and a riverbed at low tide is now a fertile field. We
can see that the church site sits on higher ground and that parishioners
from Pereau could have come to church by boat! Now it doesn't seem
so remote and inaccessible.
|
Lewis has one
more surprise. In his years of excavating, he has come across some
ingenious Acadian inventions like the brilliantly laid out drain
tiles in the Belle Isle dykelands not far from Port Royal.
He was able
to show us where the Acadians had built a "stone bridge"
in order to traverse the river. Here is how it worked. The Acadians
would construct a "bridge" of rocks by laying them and
piling them to form a road, on the muddy riverbed. This was supported
by posts and provided a hard surface for passage.
Here is the
trick.
These bridges
were totally submerged when it was high tide and because the water
could go right over the rocks. The bridges were located in a narrow
and shallow spot in the river, when the tide receded, it was still
intact and passable again!
Sometimes, all
you need is a little information and what you see before you, takes
on a new meaning.
That is what
happened to us on this spring afternoon.
|
Canadian Topographic
map (texte inséré: R. Hétu)
|
It will be impossible
to drive the country roads of Canning without thinking of the many
families who lived, worked, worshiped, farmed, traded and buried
their valuables as they fled 250 years ago this year.
Were they thinking
that this was just the latest in the series of raids or crisis that
was common for new settlers and that they would return as they had
before? How could they know that, as they buried their valuables
in shallow, hastily dug holes that they were leaving for good?
In the Annapolis
Valley of today, legends have survived of grandsons who came, years
after, with tattered hand drawn maps, only to find a changed landscape
and a sad closure for this part of their family history.
Today, we were
able to see their village in our imaginations.
Susan Surette-Draper
|