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JURASSIC PARK |
[Posted 2/18/2008]
As I stated earlier, Louisbourg is not the Jurassic Park of the reconstruction world. Yet, Louisbourg was to be an experiment, a model of the past to be built as accurately as possible. But the fact that the increasing pressure to compromise will surely kill off the experiment is not to say that an experiment without compromise was ever possible. Clearly, a 100 percent accurate reconstruction, from a philosophical, evidential and practical point of view, was never possible, nor was ever attempted.
On the other hand, Louisbourg, without the restraint of an agreed-upon "accuracy" benchmark, has continuously metamorphosed, with each subsequent change "less accurate " in general thrust (despite windows of opportunity) than the previous one. If we continue to treat our reconstructions as we have in the past, I think that one result is obvious: Louisbourg will become an example, perhaps even a profitable example, of a theme park where glitter rather than substance rules.
Ironically, before that happens, given present pressures to adapt, the Fortress Site might even end up full circle, to attain again that which it had once before, in the 1930's. Then, Louisbourg was an important player in a movement now known as the romantic approach to the presentation of Canadian history. In this scenario, buildings may look historical, as does the Louisbourg 1935-1936 Museum, but improvements would merely reflect the antique flavour of the fortress without any concern for any dogmatic scientific presentation of site specific evidence.