Aulac is a Canadian community in Westmorland County,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. It is located between the college town of Sackville and the provincial border with

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Geography

Aulac is situated upon the Aulac Ridge, a prominent rise running west–east across the

Tantramar Marshes The Tantramar Marshes, also known as the Tintamarre National Wildlife Area, is a tidal saltmarsh around the Bay of Fundy on the Isthmus of Chignecto. The area borders between Route 940, Route 16 and Route 2 near Sackville, New Brunswick. The go ...

on the

Isthmus of Chignecto The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America. The isthmus separates the waters of Chignecto Bay, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fun ...

, approximately 2 kilometres west of the

Missaguash River The Missaguash River (French: Rivière Missaguash) is a small Canadian river that forms the southern portion of the inter-provincial boundary between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the Isthmus of Chignecto. It had historic significance in the 18t ...

which forms the southern part of the inter-provincial boundary with Nova Scotia.

History

Aulac became strategically important for French military forces during the 18th century after ceding what is now peninsular Nova Scotia to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in the

1713 Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...

; the words describing the boundary of

Acadia Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and early ...

(then including all of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

, the

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick o ...

Anticosti Island ; moe, Notiskuan; mic, Natigostec , sobriquet = , image_name = RiviereHuileAnticosti.jpg , image_caption = Salmon fisherman on Rivière à l'Huile , image_map ...

and part of eastern

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

) were sufficiently vague as to permit France to establish the

as the boundary between Britain's new colony and

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

. During

Father Le Loutre's War Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the Briti ...

, British military forces constructed a log stockade on the Fort Lawrence Ridge, 3 km to the south of Aulac, naming their facility

Fort Lawrence Fort Lawrence was a British fort built during Father Le Loutre's War and located on the Isthmus of Chignecto (in the modern-day community of Fort Lawrence). Father Le Loutre's War Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia rema ...

, which was promptly answered by the French construction of

Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour (), renamed Fort Cumberland in 1755, is a large, five-bastioned fort on the Isthmus of Chignecto in eastern Canada, a neck of land connecting the present-day province of New Brunswick with that of Nova Scotia. The site was strateg ...

at the western end of the Aulac Ridge, overlooking the Cumberland Basin of the Bay of Fundy. After falling to Britain during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, the Aulac area became part of the Tantramar farming district in the township of Sackville. The

Intercolonial Railway The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely ow ...

constructed its mainline connecting

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. The ...

, New Brunswick with

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

, Nova Scotia in 1872, with the railway line curving around the ridge below the fort. In the 20th century, roads across the marshes passed up and over the Aulac Ridge, as did a road running the length of the ridge toward Port Elgin. These roads were upgraded in the 1960s as part of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

project, with the Moncton- Amherst, Nova Scotia section being numbered Highway 2 and the Aulac-Port Elgin (and thence Cape Tormentine) section being numbered

Highway 16 Route 16, or Highway 16, can refer to: International * Asian Highway 16 * European route E16 * European route E016 Australia - Thompsons Road (Victoria) - South Australia Canada ;Parts of the Trans-Canada Highway: *Yellowhead Hi ...

Present day

Direction Fort Beauséjour (Nouveau-Brunswick)

A cluster of highway service businesses established in Aulac, including a truck stop, several gas stations, motels and stores and the hamlet became a popular stopping point for highway travellers. During the 1990s, Aulac was bypassed when Highway 2 was upgraded on a new 4-lane alignment several hundred metres to the east. A truck stop, a motel, and several businesses remain. The Trans Canada Highway (

New Brunswick Route 2 Route 2 is a major provincial highway in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, carrying the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway in the province. The highway connects with Autoroute 85 at the border with Quebec and Highway 104 at the border w ...

) and

New Brunswick Route 16 __NOTOC__ Route 16 is a 2-lane highway in the Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The route begins at a T intersection with Aulac Road at Aulac, New Brunswick, Aulac and ends at the western abutment of the Confederation Bridge at Cape Jo ...

intersect at Aulac. Most traffic heading for Prince Edward Island via the

Confederation Bridge The Confederation Bridge (french: Pont de la Confédération) is a box girder bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, linking the province of Prince Edward Island with the province of Ne ...

must use this interchange and virtually all traffic passing between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia also travels through this interchange. In 2012, there were about 14,000 vehicles per day passing along Route 2.[New Brunswick Department of Transportation (2012
Traffic Volume Map

Notable people

References

Fort Beauséjour
Communities in Westmorland County, New Brunswick {{NewBrunswick-geo-stub

Geography

History

Present day

Notable people

See also

References