In 1797, an archaeological project was initiated in order to identify where exactly was located Sainte Croix River and to establish a boundary between the British colonies and the "now free" United States. This way, authorities wished to put an end to the British-U.S. conflict which began after the end of the American War of Independence. During his visit of the Island of Docea, Robert Pagnan discovered four aggregates of ruins. He decided to dig those places and he found different objects: stones in a clay mortar, charcoal and brick fragments, a stone pitcher, and objects made of ceramic and metal. Pagnan asked Thomas Wright to help him determine the exact origin of these ruins and objects. They found that these ruins were foundations of a 6 meter by 20 meter building which might have been a storehouse. They also discovered four brick and/or stone fireplaces, probably built by French settlers during the cold winter of 1604-1605 spend on Sainte Croix Island.

Then, in the middle of 1800's, workers from the sand quarry found, on Sainte Croix Island, five small cannonballs probably from the French settlement of 1604. Ruins of the house found during the previous century were still visible, coming out of the ground. For many years, local authorities suspected that some visitors might have taken bricks as a souvenir of their visit on Sainte Croix Island.

However, most important archaeological research has been conducted during the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. Most of them aimed at identifying Sainte Croix Island historical resources, archaeological resources dating from 1604-1605, relations between Native people and Europeans, as well as ruins of the lighthouse. Other archaeological excavations were made in 1968-1969 in order to learn more about the Native communities and the first European settlers.

Finally in 1976, two projects were initiated on the Island by archaeologists. In the first project, archaeologists studied artefacts related to the plaster and granite industries. Different resources such as places, structures and buildings were also identified. Thanks to the second project, many objects and important sites were discovered and identified:

• Cemetery where the French settlers were buried during the winter of 1604-1605
• Ruins of the French settlement of 1604: Pierre Dugua de Mons' house and foundations of the storehouse
• Artefacts older than 3 000 years. They prove that Native people lived in the region back then: biface chipped stone weapons and tools, stone and ceramic fragments, other stone tools, etc.
• Fragments of objects related to fishing and farming activities as well as from the lighthouse built in the 19th century.

The Division of Resources Management of Acadia National Park takes very good care of this collection of artefacts found on Sainte Croix Island. Among the artefacts, visitors can admire European made fawn bricks, a large number of hand made nails, shards of thirty sandstone vessels, fragments of many houses, of other buildings as well as objects traded between Europeans and Natives (axe heads, buckles, wooden combs, spoons, glass beads, and musket balls).