Anticosti Island

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Anticosti - Landsat photo
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Anticosti - Landsat photo

Anticosti Island (French, Île d'Anticosti) is a rocky, forest covered island at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At 7,892.52 km² (3,047.3 sq mi) in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.

It is very large (217 km long and 16-48 km wide — larger than the province of Prince Edward Island), but very sparsely populated (266 people in 2001), mostly in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island, consisting chiefly of the keepers of the numerous lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The coast is rocky and dangerous, and has only two safe harbours, Ellis Bay and Fox Bay. The largest lake on the island is Lake Wickenden, which feeds the Jupiter River.

[edit] History

For thousands of years, Anticosti Island was the territory of the indigenous peoples who lived on the mainland and used it as a hunting ground. The Innu called it Notiskuan, translated as "where bears are hunted" and the Mi'kmaq called it Natigostec, meaning "forward land". The French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed along its shore in the summer of 1534. He called the place Assomption and provided its first written description. By the early 1600s France had officially seized the island and made it part of its colonial empire. Its first settlers arrived when in 1680 King Louis XIV gifted to Louis Jolliet the Seigneury of the Mingan Archipelago and Anticosti Island. Equal to one-quarter the size of the country of Belgium, Anticosti thus became the largest island in the world to ever be privately owned. Louis Jolliet erected a fort on Anticosti and in the spring of 1681 settled there with his wife, four children and six servants. His fort was captured and occupied during the winter of 1690 by some of the Massachusetts troops of William Phips during their retreat after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Quebec City. The Jolliet family retained ownership until 1763 when it became part of the British Empire under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War. In the ensuing years the island property changed hands several times, it owners generally using it for the harvesting of timber.

Port-Menier, Anticosti Island, c. 1922
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Port-Menier, Anticosti Island, c. 1922

In 1895 Anticosti was sold to French chocolate maker Henri Menier who also leased the shore fisheries rights. Menier converted the island into a personal game preserve and named the Island's 70 metre high Vauréal Falls after the town of Vauréal in France where he owned a home.

Henri Menier constructed the entire village of Port-Menier, built a cannery for packing fish and lobsters, and attempted to develop its resources of lumber, peat, and minerals. Many of the original houses still stand today. Menier also introduced a herd of 220 deer to the island. Without natural predators such as wolves, the deer thrived and today the population exceeds 100,000 while the island's moose population is about 1,000.

Henri Menier died in 1913 and his brother Gaston became the owner of Anticosti Island. He used and maintained it for a time but eventually decided it was not an economically viable proposition and sold it to the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company in 1926.

In 1974, the government of Quebec purchased the island. With its 24 rivers and streams bountiful with salmon and trout, it is now a paradise for paleontologists, bird watchers, hikers, and a major draw for anglers and hunters, particularly those from the United States.

[edit] References

Coordinates: 49°30′N 63°00′W

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