Sunbury County

Sunbury County is perhaps the most precise expression of the survey’s art in the province: it’s nearly perfect narrow rhomboid shape lies in the heart of the south central part of New Brunswick straddling the St John River.  The northern section is entirely forest and bogs, a thin strip along either side of the river was settled in the 1760s by New Englanders, while the southern portion is a mix of forest and upland farming intersected by the Oromocto River.  Vital road links between Fredericton and the Fundy shore pass through the southern part of the county around Fredericton Junction.

Oromocto is the largest urban centre and was the site of a blockhouse (now rebuilt) guarding access to the Oromocto river system, a key transportation route for both Maliseet First Nation people and later Europeans.  One small action against a British expedition took place south of Oromocto in the 1750s during the British campaign of Acadian expulsion.  In the nineteenth century blockhouses were built on either side of the river at Fredericton Junction to guard the road to St George and St Andrews.  Oromocto is now the site of CFB Gagetown, one of Canada’s main army bases, home of the key Combat Training Centre and the largest training area in the British Commonwealth.  The New Brunswick Military History Museum is located on the base.