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History Articles

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Carrick Shipwreck Monument, Gaspé

Author: 
Gaspé Tourism Office and Convention Board

Around the middle of the 19th century, the great Irish famine brought thousands of impoverished families to America. One of the immigrant ships, the Carricks of Whitehaven, went down off Cap-des-Rosiers in 1847. Of the 187 passengers on board, 87 perished at sea and 100 survivors were taken in by families in the village.

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Cannons of Fort Prével, Gaspé

Author: 
Gaspé Tourism Office and Convention Board

Since the Gulf of St. Lawrence was a strategic spot for enemy invasions (German submarines were known to be there starting in 1941), Gaspé became a strategic spot for the Ministry of National Defence. A naval base with 3000 men was built at Sandy Beach in order to patrol the Gulf. Strategic forts were sprinkled over the territory, and remnants of that time still exist today, such as the Fort Peninsula galleries at the entrance to Forillon National Park, the Fort Ramsay naval base at Sandy Beach, and the shoreline batteries at Cap-aux-Os and Fort- Prével.

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Jacques Cartier Monument National Historic Site of Canada, Gaspé

Author: 
Gaspé Tourism Office and Convention Board

The Jacques Cartier Monument National Historic Site is composed of six cast-iron stelae in shapes that recall the flat pebbles of the Gaspé Peninsula beaches, the mountainous profile of Forillon National Park of Canada and the standing stones of Brittany. The bas-reliefs on the stelae portray the principle scenes of the historic encounter between Europeans and Amerindians on July 24, 1534 when Jacques Cartier erected a cross on the shore of Gaspé Bay before a group of troubled Kwedech (Iroquois).

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Jacques Cartier's Cross

Author: 
Gaspé Tourism Office and Convention Board

Although Jacques Cartier has planted five crosses during his travels from 1534 and 1535-36, only one, planted in Gaspé in July 1534, marks his official taking possession of the new territory on behalf of the king of France, Francis I. On August 25, 1934, during the 400th anniversary celebrations of the arrival of Cartier in Gaspé, the Historic Sites and Monuments of Canada unveiled a cross in Gaspé made of granite measuring 10 meters high and weighing 29 tons.

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The Big Fish

Author: 
Erin McWhirter (Age 16, Bonaventure Polyvalent School, previously published by CASA)

One day on the Gaspé in 1939 a man by the name of Esmond B. Martin caught the largest Atlantic salmon ever taken in North American waters, here on our own river the Grand Cascapedia.

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Fascinating Forillon, Part 1

Author: 
Cynthia Dow

This is the first part of a series written by Cynthia Dow and published in SPEC in 1995 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Forillon National Park. The series is dedicated to the memory of the late Elwood Dow and his wife Gerty Gavey, uncle and aunt of the author, whose Indian Cove home was expropriated to make way for the Park.

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From Jersey to the Gaspé: Charles Robin, 1743-1824, a Forgotten Father of Canada (Part 1)

Author: 
Betty Le Maistre

Why would anyone want to leave the lush, prosperous, semi-tropical island of Jersey and sail for weeks half-way around the world to reach the cold, empty and desolate Gaspé Coast on the eastern seaboard of Canada?

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From Jersey to the Gaspé: Charles Robin, 1743-1824, a Forgotten Father of Canada (Part 2)

Author: 
Betty Le Maistre

(Continued from Part 1: http://gaspesie.quebecheritageweb.com/article/jersey-gaspe-charles-robin...)

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Miss Martha Baillie, A Community Treasure

Author: 
CASA (with information supplied by Heather Edwards)

The presence of the Baillie Family in the small village of Fleurant Point dates back to 1841, when Thomas Baillie emigrated from Scotland to America on the same boat as well-known fellow Scotsman and emigrant, Sir John A. MacDonald, who some years later would become Canada’s first Prime Minister.

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Musée de la Gaspésie acquires archives from the Robin store in Bonaventure

Author: 
Musée de la Gaspésie

In January, the Musée de la Gaspésie obtained the archives of the Robin store of Bonaventure. Mrs. Josée Barette, daughter of Juliette Gauthier and Douglas Barette, generously offered the documents to the Centre d’archives de la Musée de la Gaspésie.

The Centre is the only private centre in the Gaspé region to be accredited by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. The Centre preserves documents of a regional interest, and is accessible to the general public of the region.

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