Pisiquit or Pisiquid is now Windsor, Nova Scotia
-
In reply to:
Re: Poole, Benoit, LeBoeuf families of SW LA
11/15/00
The place name PISIQUIT or PISIQUID is a First Nation (Indian) name. Today it is known as Windsor, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. This area is about 12-15 miles (20-25 km) from Grand Pré (Big Meadow) the original settlement of the "Acadiens" where the Government of Canada has a National Historic Site that is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. Windsor, NS, is about 70 km (45 mi) west of the capital city Halifax, NS.
Pisiquit was a challenging place to life, just like Grand Pré. This whole area has the highest tides in the world from the Bay of Fundy. At Grand Pré, the first settlers had successfully reclaimed the low land by constructing hand-made earthen dikes that ran 5½ MILES (8.8 km). They are still in place today. At Pisiquit there were many early stories aboutpeople trying to cross the Pisiquit River on horseback. There are mudflats in the river that are just like quicksand. If the rider looked down the river toward the Bay of Fundy and saw a wall of water coming toward him, it was too late to escape. The river basin (still visible from the main road today) would fill up within minutes, and if the poor rider - and horse - were stuck in the mud flats, they would drown. This settlement was one of the first to have a bridge, to avoid the treacherous tides of Fundy.
Soon after the Expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, the English military built a fort (Ft. Edward) at this place, and by 1760 the first New England settlers arrived to take over the vacated lands of the French Acadians who had been forced off their land.