Hillsborough and its Acadian past

This quaint village just south of Moncton was originally settled by Acadian farmers back in the 1600s. They were the only people in North America to farm below sea level on marshy salty land thus causing little conflict with the region’s Aboriginal people. The Acadians constructed a complex system of earthen dykes by the Petitcodiac River. Into the dykes they built wooden sluices that when open allowed fresh water to drain from the newly claimed land. When shut, the sluices kept out the salt water at high tide. This land then sustained both crops and livestock. With this successful farming method, the original sixty-five Acadian families increased to one hundred and sixty by the 1770s—many moving to the French community to avoid being under the British.