Hortonville is a community in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, located in

Kings County Kings County or King's County may refer to: Places Canada *Kings County, New Brunswick *Kings County, Nova Scotia * Kings County, Prince Edward Island ** King's County (electoral district), abolished in 1892 Ireland * County Offaly, formerly call ...

at the mouth of the Gaspereau River and is part of the Landscape of Grand Pré UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site of Fort Vieux Logis is located by the river at Hortonville, built by the British 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 Kingdo ...

to control the nearby Acadian settlements at Grand Pre. The landing at Hortonville was used in 1755 to deport the majority of Acadians from Grand Pre during the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain. It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Br ...

and is today marked by an Acadian Memorial Cross. The same landing was used in 1760 when

New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ...

, led by Robert Denison, arrived to re-settle the Grand Pre area and is marked by a National Historic Sites and Monuments Board plaque commemorating the Planters. The settlement was named Horton Township after Horton Hall, the English country estate of

George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (6 October 1716 – 8 June 1771) was a British statesman of the Georgian era. Due to his success in extending commerce in the Americas, he became known as the "father of the colonies". President of the B ...

, chairman of the British Board of Trade which was in charge of English settlements in Nova Scotia. GrandPreMonuments

First known as Horton Landing, Hortonville was surveyed as the intended townsite for the New England Planters Horton Township settlement. However, the town development gravitated instead to

Wolfville Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School. The town is a tourist destination d ...

further to the west and Hortonville remained as an agricultural area. The

Windsor and Annapolis Railway The Windsor and Annapolis Railway (W&AR) was a historic Canadian railway that operated in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. The railway ran from Windsor, Nova Scotia, Windsor to Annapolis Royal and leased connections to Nova Scotia's capital of Ci ...

, later the

Dominion Atlantic Railway The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley. The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) was unusually divers ...

, built a bridge across the Gaspereau River at Hortonville in 1869 (re-built in 1911-1912), followed by a station which further developed agriculture and began tourism in the area. In 1924, the Dominion Atlantic Railway deeded a plot of land beside the tracks at Hortonville to the Acadian memorial society to erect an iron memorial cross at what was believed to be the site of the deportation. In 2005 the railway assisted moving the cross to a site owned by Parks Canada closer to the river established by more recent research as the actual deportation site."The Deportation Cross", ''Grand-Pre.com''
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References

{{coord, 45, 6, 29.45, N, 64, 17, 28.08, W, name=Hortonville, Nova Scotia, display=title, region:CA-NS_scale:100000 Communities in Kings County, Nova Scotia Unincorporated communities in Nova Scotia