As I entered the Fort Chambly, old ghosts of people seemed to appear. I see some putting cannonballs in cannons and then light the wick. The sound is awfully loud! A tour guide then tells me about the history of the Fort Chambly…
Fort Chambly was fist built in 1665. There were 4 forts. The first one was in wood. It was unfortunately too old so, they needed to replace it. They replaced it by another one in wood. It then accidentally burnt. Because the wood fort couldn’t protect itself from cannonballs and other explosives, they replaced the wood fort by a stone fort.
In 1869 the fort was abandoned. Joseph Octave Dion went to live in the fort and started to restore it. He asked the government for money to help him restore this historical monument. He lived there until his death. The fort was then taken over by Parks Canada.
The fort was used to control the circulation on the river and to protect the Montreal city from secret Iroquois attacks. The boats had no choice to pass by the Richelieu. The fort was also a place where soldiers went to get food supplies.
The fort is now a museum. Each year, 30,000 visitors go to Fort Chambly. It is a special part in my community because when I visit the museum, it makes me this if the past and how it was back then. Doing this research made me learn a lot about my local history!