Aboiteau returns to Grand-Pre

After undergoing two years of conservation treatment, the aboiteau found in May 2006 by Robert Palmeter and Donald Kennie near Grand-Pré National Historic Site is now in the Visitors’ Centre. Instead of lying in waterlogged clay, it is resting on trestles for public viewing.

An aboiteau is a long wooden sluice or culvert that was used by the early Acadians to drain the salt marshes so they could plant crops. It included a clapper valve that prevented seawater from flooding the fields at high tide, but allowed fresh water to flow out at low tide.

Normally the aboiteau was placed on the bed of a stream or creek and was integrated into the wall of a dyke. Like all the early aboiteaux, the one found at Grand-Pré was made from a hollowed out log covered on the top with short hand-hewn lathes. The clapper valve and the lathes were still intact. The aboiteau was accidentally broken into two sections by a backhoe when it was discovered.

Although a number of aboiteaux have been discovered over the years in lands once farmed by the Acadians, this is the first aboiteau that scientists have actually analyzed and dated using modern technology.

A recent report published by André Robichaud and Colin Laroque reveals some amazing findings. Very shortly after the aboiteau was discovered, Robichaud took samples of the wood with an increment borer exactly like the ones foresters use to estimate the age of living trees. He took core samples from the hollowed out log that formed the sluice and also from the two intact logs that were lying parallel to the sluice. The samples were then examined using scanning electron microscopes at the Dendrochronology Lab at Mount Allison University.

Made from hollowed out white pine

First of all, Robichaud and Laroque discovered the aboiteau was made from a hollowed out white pine tree (Pinus strobus). In some ways this is surprising since hemlock, cedar and tamarack are usually considered to be much more resistant to rot.

Since the aboiteau was always going to be waterlogged, the Acadians obviously knew that pine would survive just as well. And it did! Cellular analysis indicates that the logs found beside the aboiteau were either red or black spruce, most likely the former (Picea rubens).

After establishing what type of wood they were dealing with, the scientists were then able to carry out experiments to determine when the trees were cut down and how old they were when they were cut. Although the pine tree was only about a foot wide, Robichaud and Laroque were able to count 274 growth rings. Their study shows the pine tree was cut down in 1686.

In other words, the aboiteau was made from a pine tree that was already at least 80 years old when Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic!

The cut date of the spruce logs indicates the spruce tree was felled in 1682. Based on these cut dates, scientists and archaeologists conclude that the aboiteau was probably installed by the Acadians not long after they settled in Grand-Pré. Since it is known that Pierre Melanson and his wife, Marguerite Mius d’Entremont, were one of the first families to move from Port Royal to Grand-Pré, they may well have participated in the installation of the aboiteau.

A lasting signature

In addition to this aboiteau, the exhibition hall at Grand-Pré National Historic Site also houses the aboiteau discovered in1996 at the Melanson Site not far from Annapolis Royal. It is also a very old aboiteau, although the exact age is not known.

Dykes and aboiteaux constitute a lasting signature of the Acadians in the maritime landscape. The aboiteau discovered at Grand-Pré is awe-inspiring not only because it is over 300 years old, but also because the tree from which it was made started its life around 1412.

As Jonathan Fowler, archaeology professor at Saint Mary’s University, points out, “the Grand-Pré aboiteau is probably the oldest piece of architectural timber found in Atlantic Canada.”

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