Fort Gaspareaux

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View of Fort Gaspaeraux overlooking the Northumberland Strait. The ditch is seen at centre in the photo. The pallisaded grounds were to the right of the ditch. A small cemetery is visible at the extreme left - the headstones are now illegible. The stone cairn was erected by the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board in the 1930's. The unmanned light structure was erected in 1972.

Fort Gaspareaux was a French fort at the head of Baie Verte near the mouth of the Gaspareaux River and just southeast of the modern village of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, Canada. It is now a National Historic Site.

The fort was built by the order of the Marquis de la Jonquière in 1751. It was originally a palisaded earthwork, measuring 180 feet (60 metres) square and surrounded by a ditch. At each corner was a blockhouse equipped with small bore cannon.

Communication with Fort Beauséjour across the Isthmus of Chignecto was at first via an ancient portage route, but, in 1754, a road was built linking the two forts. Communication by sea was possible in the summer to Québec, Louisbourg, and France.

After the fall of Fort Beauséjour, in 1755, the British sent 300 men, led by Colonel John Winslow, to take Fort Gaspareaux, then under the command of Captain Villeray. This was quickly accomplished, and the fort was renamed Fort Monckton and put under the charge of an English garrison. The British abandoned the fort the next year, unable to defend it from harassment by hostile Mi'kmaq Indians.[1].