One of New Brunswick’s most historic sites is seeing lots of traffic this summer, but not from tourists or researchers.
Other than the odd Canadian Coast Guard worker, researcher, or member of the Irish Canadian Cultural Association, Partridge Island is off-limits to visitors.
However, the Saint John Harbour landmark is becoming a favourite stomping ground for vandals.
Over the years, many people have illegally crossed the breakwater to the island, including those intent on destroying it.
Historian Harold Wright says recent photos of the island show crosses that have been broken off in graveyards and worse.
“It is the desecration of the graveyards that I find most disturbing right now,” says Wright. “In the Protestant and Catholic graveyards, in 1995, we buried the remains of several immigrants. Somebody tried to dig that coffin up and they were only inches from uncovering that coffin.”
A cross has been torn from one graveyard and thrown onto the Jewish cemetery. Even a bronze plaque has disappeared from a monument. That plaque was unveiled when Partridge Island was designated a national historic site.
“They have been ripped off the monument and they’re gone,” says Wright. “So, I suspect they either carried them across the breakwater like fools, or they had a boat.”
Phillip Greenlaw lives a short distance from the breakwater. He says many people trespass on the island, but things are getting out of hand.
“We know there are graves out there, people digging them up, man dear alive, when kids do this they haven’t got much respect. So, something’s got to be done about it,” says Greenlaw.
Wright says the Coast Guard should place security cameras on the breakwater and alert police when they see someone crossing, or even remove part of the breakwater to prevent people from visiting the island.
“If we’re going to preserve this island, some way, shape, or form, then we either got to do it and get off the pot, or let the port corporation take it over and bulldoze it.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron
