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To succeeding generations of the young at Tatamagouche , Blockhouse Point has been a place of interest and of mystery.* Around it centered tales of the Indians and of the French . And of the supernatural as well; for in its lore, legends of ghosts were not forgotten. A place, too, it was supposed to be of French and Indian relics, such as hatchets, arrowheads, flints, tomahawks, muskets, beads, crucifixes and candlesticks. Tales, too, there were of buried French treasure.** So in the passing of time it became generally known as the site of a legendary French fort. Even today jutting out into the Harbour with its unbroken view, its marshes and creek, its sloping fields, its beaches of sand and of rock, its high and abrupt red banks and the sombre forests in the background, it, steeped in the atmosphere of tradition and of folk lore, speaks to us of times long gone. How much factual basis there is to the legends of its discovered relics is hard to say. However, over forty years ago, when Sid Gass lived on the farm, I remember his showing us remains of stone pillars of a sort, which he had dug up at the fort and then had in his yard. These can yet be seen near the home of the present owner, John Ferguson. Evidently they were part of the material used in the construction of the fort. But one day in the spring of 1770, if one had stood on the abandoned ramparts of old Fort Francklin and looked seaward, he would have seen the far off sail of a clumsy craft, which having rounded Cape John and sailed through Amet Sound, was now beating its course or running before the wind to the Bar to make its way up the River. And with this craft came life again to Tatamagouche. This time to stay for on board were DesBarres’ first settlers from Lunenburg. And theirs is another story. *Nor are tales of
murder missing. About eighty years ago when shipbuilding was at its height at
Tatamagouche, a man and woman were seen as they passed Campbell’s shipyard
going towards Amherst on the highway. They were next seen near the Blockhouse.
Thereafter the woman was never heard of. Suspicion fastened upon her companion
that he had done away with her. Search parties were organized and the area
around the Blockhouse thoroughly scoured as it was believed that her body was
hidden there. Her body was never found nor was she ever thereafter heard of.
This story is purely traditionary though I believe correct.
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