Long-awaited Fort La Tour project in Saint John nears completion

Trading post life in the 1600s Soon visitors will be able to explore what life would have been like at New Brunswick’s Fort La Tour Trading Post in the 1600s.

Construction continues along the Saint John waterfront to bring a piece of the past into the present.

Visitors will soon be able to explore what life would have been like at a trading post in the 1600s.

After nearly 50 years in the making, the dream is finally becoming a reality.

Beth Hatt recently got a glimpse of construction as the Fort La Tour project forges ahead.

“We are finally building a fort,” said Hatt, the Fort La Tour Development Authority chair. “I'm so excited. We've waited a long time for this.”

The pointed wooden stakes set in concrete on this waterfront plot are part of the palisade that's going up.

It’s just one element of the redevelopment project that will also include replica fort buildings, a plaza, blacksmith forge, a bastion, and walking paths.

All of it is meant to evoke what it would have looked like here in 1631, when Charles de Saint-Etienne de La Tour built his fortified trading post.

“Jacqueline de La Tour was kind of Canada's first heroine,” said Emily Teed, a board member with the development authority. “She defended the fort for a number of days while her husband was off to sea trying to find more men to support the efforts.”

The land also has a rich indigenous history. In the 1950s, an archeological dig uncovered artifacts that led researchers to believe this was a significant indigenous site.

“The fort used to sit on the mound, that's next to where we're building,” said Hatt. “We're building on filled land, because we didn't want to disturb the sacred site.”

It was in 1972 former Saint John mayor and MLA Eric Teed helped to create the group focused on developing the land.

“This is really quite a historical crossroads for Indigenous, the Anglophones, as well as the Francophones,” said Teed. “It's really a unique piece of land in that it really touches a lot of the Canadian history.”

This is a $1.8-million project and about a third of that is coming from the corporate sector, with the rest from all levels of government. The goal is to have it open for visitors by the fall of this year.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Lyall.