The rain stopped overnight, and although it is cloudy, there is no rain in the forecast. After breakfast we drove a couple of miles to the Louisbourg Fortress National Historical Site, not knowing quite what to expect. Turns out Louisbourg has a long and interesting history. France established a town here in about 1720, which became for a time one of the busiest ports in North America, with a protected ice-free deep water harbor and lots of cod to trade with the other colonies and with Europe. The French built an elaborate fort with guns facing out to sea. In the French and Indian War the English besieged the town and fort from the land side, and the fort surrendered. England sent all the Frenchmen back to France. The treaty ending the war gave Nova Scotia back to France so the Frenchment came back. But a few years later another siege and another surrender. The English didn't really want Louisbourg, they just wanted the French out. So they destroyed the fort and burned the town. Skip a hundred and fifty years of not much in Louisbourg, and the town was reborn as a shipping port for coal sent by railroad from elsewhere in Nova Scotia. The coal mines shut down in the 60's and 70's and the government put unemployed coal miners to work reconstructing the fortress and town on its original site, a couple of miles from the present town, as it was in 1744. They did an exhaustive study of the original plans and records, did a lot of arcaeological work, and rebuilt it all using period building techniques, materials and tools. We spent all day there, and didn't see quite all. An enjoyable day. Wednesday night we went to a concert at the theatre next door to the campground, with four local musicians playing mostly Celtic music, with songs (one in Gaelic) and dancing. Enjoyed it a lot, and bought a CD.
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