Aulac, New Brunswick on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Aulac is a Canadian community in Westmorland County,
Aulac became strategically important for French military forces during the 18th century after ceding what is now peninsular Nova Scotia to
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 (
Traffic Volume Map
Fort Beauséjour
Communities in Westmorland County, New Brunswick {{NewBrunswick-geo-stub
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 theTantramar 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 g ...
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 o ...
, approximately 2 kilometres west of the Missaguash River 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 ...
; 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 earl ...
(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. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...
, 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 ...
, 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 nor ...
) were sufficiently vague as to permit France to establish the Missaguash River 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 Spa ...
. 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 Br ...
, British military forces constructed a log stockade on the Fort Lawrence Ridge, 3 km to the south of Aulac, naming their facility Fort Lawrence, 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 Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The city has earned the nickname "Hub City" because of ...
, New Brunswick with Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
, 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 (Canadian French, 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 A ...
project, with the Moncton-Amherst Amherst may refer to:
People
* Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst''
* Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...
, 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
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 bord ...
) and New Brunswick Route 16
__NOTOC__
Route 16 is a 2-lane highway in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The route begins at a T intersection with Aulac Road at Aulac and ends at the western abutment of the Confederation Bridge at Cape Jourimain.
It functions as ...
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 ...
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 (2012Traffic Volume Map
Notable people
See also
*List of communities in New BrunswickReferences
Fort Beauséjour
Communities in Westmorland County, New Brunswick {{NewBrunswick-geo-stub