In 1996, Parks Canada installed a new irrigation system at Grand-Pré National Historic Site. Workers used a small machine to dig a narrow trench for the plastic pipes. Fortunately, an archaeologist was on hand to monitor this work. What she saw surprised everyone, for the mechanical excavator struck a jumble of buried stones as it passed just a few meters south of the bronze statue of Evangeline.

Archaeologists followed the initial work in 1996 with a larger excavation in October 1997. The project's goal was to better understand the origin and purpose of these stones. They started by excavating a 1m x 7m trench leading south from the statue, later widening it to reveal more of the features they discovered.

The excavation revealed a rough stone platform measuring 5.5m x 5.5m. Embedded in the stones, at the north end of the excavation trench, they found two parallel, axe-hewn logs, lying horizontal. Each was 4m long and 20-22cm in diameter. Laid 25-30cm apart, they created a hollow channel, but that channel had gradually become clogged with sediment.

There were very few artifacts among the stones. Beneath the stones, however, archaeologists found the preserved remains of stacked layers of brush (softwood pine and spruce). It was in investigating this brush that they found something quite unexpected.

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