In the winter of 1691-1692, the «commandment» Villebon prepared wood for the construction of the fort. This fort consisted of a palisade made of six hundred (600) stakes. Work on the construction began on March 8th 1692, on the eve of Saint-Joseph's Day. It is for this reason that it was named Fort Saint-Joseph by Villebon. One month after, that is on April 15th, the palisade and the three masonries were completed. Description - A typical fort of the 17th century with a palisade made of timber piles. The end of each pile was completed by a diamond shaped bastion. Inside the fortifications, there were three masonries and a furnace. These masonries were:
- the command’s quarters - the soldiers’ barracks - the guard house This fort was located on the south western tip of the intersection of Saint-John River and Nashwaak River. After one and a half century, the erosion by the river had already left its effects. In 1867, the original site had disappeared and was already part of the bed of the Saint John River. This is what James Hannay reports in his article on Fort Nashwaak published in Stewart' S Quarterly Magazine (1). William F Ganong provides this information in his Monograph of historical sites of New Brunswick in 18992 This site is now occupied by the Irving company who should transfer it to the city of Fredericton. 2. William Francis GANONG, A Monograph of Historic Sites in the Province of New Brunswick, in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Section II, 1899, p. 273. "There is no doubt as to its site; it stood in the upper angle between the Nashwaak and the Saint John, close to water, on high interval now washed away, so that the site of the fort was over what is now the gravel beach."
Construction of the fort
Fort Nashwaak - A Project of Unity and Cooperation
Site
1. . April 1867, volume 1, p. 100, "The constant wearing away of the soil by ice and water for nearly two century has had the effect of washing away the place on which the fort stood."