Fort Champlain, A place of many faces
New face of the Colonies
Fort Champlain may not as famous or vital like Louisbourg or the Citadel of Quebec. However, it still gives an interesting facet of the movement event of the expansion of the colonies. The Fort in itself contains three different exhibitions covering different aspects of the colonial life in which the fort was involved.
History of the fort
The first room posses many things on the fort past. The first one is a short timeline of the place in the different conflict it was involved in. Those are the two Iroquois wars that saw two different wooden forts being built. The Stone version that we saw today only appears during the war with England.In the room, there are also various artifacts of weapons like sword, rifles or ammunition. There is also the rest of an early furnace.Next, there is the reconstruction of the events that took place during the first Iroquois war. It is basically a the autumn and winter expedition of 1666. Those expeditions have for goals to destroy the Iroquois villages. If the first expedition was success full, the second one was a total disaster as the French were not ready to face the harsh cold of the winter.The next room is about the second Iroquois war. This one saw the first friction between French and English in the Colonies of America. In this conflict, the Iroquois received support from the English by supplying them with weapons. After numerous battled the Iroquois were defeated after the English abandon them.In the next room, there is a presentation of the construction of the final stone fort. There is a miniature of the original structure and also the tools used for the site. Then there is a short movie about the renovations of the fort before it was turned into a museum.
The Word of the Smugglers
on the second floor, there are two exhibitions, the one you are gonna to see first is about Smugglers and who were fighting them. In the first room, there are various activities for young children about smugglers activities.On the corridor living in this room, you have a close view on the daily living conditions and activities of an average soldier living in the fort. This goes from training to daily tasks, passing by the pay.
Organizing a New Country
The last Exposition is about how the colonies managed by the local governor and the activities of the peasants. A first there is a plan on how the lands were divided between farmers and also a basic statistic of the general population of Humans, horses and livestock at three different years. After this, there is also a small reconstruction of a classic farm and the ratio of rue, barley, corn, oats, peas and wheat. The last room is a small panel explaining the different actions taken during the restoration of the fort.
