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<\/p>\nParks Canada is raising the alarm over unauthorized archaeological activities\u00a0at national historic sites straddling the\u00a0border between New Brunswick and\u00a0Nova Scotia, saying they are finding about 30 new holes in the ground each day.<\/p>\n
Tim Leblanc Murphy, a spokesperson with Parks Canada, said people seem to be using metal detectors and digging up artifacts at both Fort Beaus\u00e9jour\u2013Fort Cumberland National Historic Site in New Brunswick, and Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence national historic sites in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
He said this has been an ongoing problem at the sites, but the activity has drastically increased over the past couple of weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The park is now tracking about 30 new holes a day, each about measuring 30 to 45 centimetres deep.<\/p>\n
“It’s just accentuated over the past weeks to a point where we’re quite alarmed,” said Leblanc Murphy.\u00a0“Our staff has arrived pretty much daily to [newly] dug holes. We’ve detected activity in the night. We even found a shovel.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | ‘You’re probably doing more harm than good,’ says Parks Canada:<\/p>\n
Illegal digging at historic sites is on the rise. Parks Canada says our history\u2019s at risk<\/p>\n
Parks Canada is raising the alarm over unauthorized archaeological activities at national historic sites straddling the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
The Beaus\u00e9jour Marsh\u00a0area near Aulac\u00a0has been a site of huge historic significance for millennia.<\/p>\n
Both national historic sites show signs of many\u00a0thousands of years of Indigenous activity before the French founded a community at Beaubassin in 1671 and then built Fort Beaus\u00e9jour in 1751.<\/p>\n
The British\u00a0built Fort Lawrence on the site of Beaubassin, which was burned down by the French to make sure it couldn’t be used by the British.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/national-historic-sites-map.jpg\")
The markers on this map show the locations of Fort Beaus\u00e9jour\u2013Fort Cumberland National Historic Site in New Brunswick (at left) and Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence national historic sites in Nova Scotia (at right). (Parks Canada)<\/p>\n
Fort Beaus\u00e9jour was captured by the British in 1755 and renamed Fort Cumberland. The site of a small skirmish during the American Revolution, it was a part of British North America’s defences during the War of 1812 and was declared a national historic site in 1920.<\/p>\n
While a lot of archaeological work has been tackled at the parks already, the long and colourful history means there are\u00a0many more artifacts hidden under the soil.<\/p>\n
“You can imagine the French and the British battling back and forth. Those fields, I’ve been told, are likely littered with cannonballs,” said Leblanc Murphy.<\/p>\n
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Leblanc Murphy pointed out that it is a crime to dig up artifacts at a national historic site without permission, and legislation sets out heavy fines for doing so. (CBC)Growing concern<\/p>\n
Amateurs digging up artifacts at historical sites is a growing concern for those charged with protecting history.<\/p>\n
Barry Gaulton, an archaeology professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L., said he’s encountered the same issue at sites in his province, specifically the Colony of Avalon in Ferryland.<\/p>\n
In common with what’s happening at\u00a0Fort Beaus\u00e9jour\u2013Fort Cumberland, someone has been coming in the night, digging holes, and taking away what they’ve found.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/barry-gaulton.jpg\")
Barry Gaulton, an archaeology professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, said he’s hearing about more and more incidents of people digging up artifacts at historical sites. (Henrike Wilhelm\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“There once was perfectly intact cobblestone pavement from the 1620s and 1630s,” said Gaulton.\u00a0“Someone had gone in there with a metal detector and detected precious metals underneath those cobbles and proceeded then to remove the cobbles and to excavate down through.”<\/p>\n
He said the culprits\u00a0removed what they found and left.<\/p>\n
Gaulton said he believes many\u00a0metal detector operators who go into these sites are just people with a keen interest and love of history who enjoy using the devices.<\/p>\n
But he said a lot of history can be lost when digs are done improperly and without permission.<\/p>\n
Information Morning – Moncton8:12Parks Canada reports a spike in illegal metal detecting and possible looting at national historic sites in Tantramar and Cumblerland county.<\/p>\n
Tim Leblanc Murphy is a partnering, engagement and communications officer with Parks Canada.<\/p>\n
“When someone comes with a metal detector and digs up through these intact layers, the context is lost,” said Gaulton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The importance and the story behind these objects are lost when someone comes and simply removes them from the ground, removes them from the context in which they were deposited. That’s the real issue that archaeologists have with metal detectors.”<\/p>\n
A costly crime<\/p>\n
It is a crime to dig up and remove artifacts from one of Canada’s\u00a01,004\u00a0national historic sites,\u00a0171 of which are administered by Parks\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/old-fort-beausejour-fort-cumberland.jpg\")
Fort Beaus\u00e9jour\u2013Fort Cumberland became a national historic site in 1920. (Library and Archives Canada)<\/p>\n