Cannonball Tree, Quebec City
Exploring Old Quebec City was a memorable experience. Established in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, it’s one of the oldest cities in North America.
As we walked along Rue Saint-Louis, we were admiring the shops and the architecture when we passed this tree with a cannonball stuck inside it. Of course, your mind wanders as to how that ball ended up there but it was obvious that the ball has been there a long time and the tree grew around it.
Doing further research, I found a few different theories on how the cannonball got there. I’m not sure anyone really knows, but here’s what we do know:
It’s not a cannonball; it’s a bomb. It’s still referred to as a cannonball, but it actually is a hollowed out bomb that would have had an incendiary device on the inside. Used as a weapon, the ball would have been fired from a cannon, and the impact would have broken the shell and ignited the internal materials of the ball.
It’s been stuck in the tree since at least the mid- 1700’s.
It was used as a wagon “bumper” in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s to keep wagon wheels from scuffing the tree.
The British fired thousands of these rounds on the French in the war of 1759 in their effort to take Quebec. The British succeeded in a 15-minute battle on the Plains of Abraham just outside the city wall. This diminished the French control of North America and many historians see this battle as the turning point for expansion of the British empire and ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.
Hidden stories from the past abound, and only the cannonball knows its true history. It is a most unusual sight to come across, and can be added to our list of weird places.
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