NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA—The Annapolis Valley Register reports that the foundations of a barracks built by the British in 1752 have been uncovered at Nova Scotia’s Fort Anne National Historic Site. The fort was constructed by Scottish settlers in 1629 to protect Annapolis Royal harbor. The barracks measured about 145 feet long and almost 40 feet wide, and was eventually torn down in 1795. Parks Canada archaeologist Rebecca Dunham spotted the building on historic drawings and documents while researching the area before a tent was erected on the site for a park event. “It was a large brick building, two-story structure to house officers and the soldiers,” Dunham said. When she investigated the site, she uncovered three-foot-thick walls made of cut stone. “We do know from that one corner excavation that everything’s very shallow and vulnerable,” she added. A geophysical survey was then conducted to map the outline of the building in order to protect it from the tent construction. “There have been many buildings constructed then torn down (or burnt down) in the parade square,” said Ted Dolan of Parks Canada. “What is significant about this find is that it now gives very accurate reference points that we can use to locate other building foundations in the parade square, as the plans we have give precise distances from other buildings. We can now very accurately estimate the exact locations of other foundations at the site,” he explained. To read about French colonists in seventeenth-century Nova Scotia, go to "Paradise Lost."
