Grand Pre’ is the holy grail of the Acadian people. This is one of several locations where the Acadians were rounded by the British and sent into exile.  This area is important because about 2100 people from here were shipped out to England, France, New England and Louisiana. Of the 2100, most were children.

The visitor center was excellent. The grounds housed a memorial church situated on the spot of the original church where the men and boys were rounded up and detained. There is a statute of Evangeline, memorialized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem by the same name, telling the story of an engaged couple who were separated in the deportation, not to find each other again until they were very old.

A very short distance from the visitor center is Horton landing where the Acadians were marched down to the waiting ships. Families were torn apart and many did not survive the ocean crossing.  Even though Nancy and I are very familiar with the history of the deportation, it was still very sobering to stand where it happened, thinking about all the people being loaded on ships. While they walked to the shoreline they watched the black smoke rise from what was left of their homes and barns. My thoughts wandered to other points in history when people were evicted from their homes and their land given to someone else. It was interesting that at Horton’s Landing a Monument stood celebrating the New England Planters who came after the Acadians were deported and settled on the land that once belonged to them.  The Planters continued maintaining and expanding the Dyke system to this day.

Site of original well

My Grandmothers maiden name was Thibodeau