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My fondest memories of living on Bonaventure Island are the beautiful beaches. Bonaventure Island has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. I remember when I was a child I was told to stay away from the cliffs, as they were very, very steep and my aunt and uncle were afraid that I might fall off or that something terrible might happen to me. They were very protective of me.

I was just a young fellow of ten years of age when I remember my mother saying that it was time for me to accompany my father in the woods trappin’. She did not like the fact that he would be two weeks alone out in the woods without anyone around to look out for him. The woods can be a dangerous place for a fella on his own. If anything ever happened back there in the woods, he would be in bad shape! My daddy would go 50 miles back into the woods – that’s right-50 miles on foot into the woods. So after I had done about three years of school, I quit and headed into the woods with my daddy.

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You don't see many hobos around the Coast today, but when I was a young girl, there were plenty of them in Shigawake. They would carry a stick with a bag tied to the end of it, just like they do in the movies; filled with clothing or something to eat. The hobos would travel back and forth along the Coast, some by train, and others by foot. Most of them would "ride the rails" as they say. This meant that they would hitch a ride on the train, hiding either underneath or on top or even inside the boxcars. The hobos that we saw traveled the roads.

Narcisse Cyr was very important in the lumbering industry in the Cascapedia Bay area, owning and operating three mills during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. After the Starrak Mill on the east side of the Little Cascapedia River burned in 1924, Cyr purchased the machinery and the mill and transferred it to the west side of the river where it was re-constructed.

The Meigs Pulpwood Co. Ltd. is a name that is no longer remembered in this area, although this company did participate in the local lumber industry for a short time in the early 1900s.

Just before the turn of thetwentieth century, three Fallow brothers from New Richmond Station (then called New Richmond Centre) -- George (Geordie), John and James -- formed the Fallow Lumber Company and went into the lumbering business.

In 1890, a companywas formed under the name of Cascapedia Manufacturing and Trading Company by Senator William C. Edwards. Angus MacLean joined Sen. Edwards about 1904. Some years earlier Sen. Edwards purchased 659 square miles of limits on the Grand and Little Cascapedia Rivers, to which he added another 558square miles in 1907, which he acquired from Robitaille.

The publication, Cemetery Heritage in Quebec: A Handbook, has just been released. The book, published by QAHN and written by Matthew Farfan, project leader of QAHN's Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIRI), is available in softcover format.

The earliest recording of the Béchervaise name is that of Colinus of St. Laurent 1331 -- the first member of the family appearing in Jersey records.

The Mi’kmaq occupied this land centuries before the first Europeans arrived and were probably the first Indigenous people to have regular contact with Europeans.This may have occurred as early as the eleventh century with the early Viking settlements on the coast of North America.The Mi’kmaq were skilled hunter-gatherers, attuned to the shifting, seasonal resources of the area and were noted for their fishing skills and their distinctive birch bark canoes that were capable of crossing open water.

The son of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the promoter of the Suez and Panama canals, Frenchman Jacques de Lesseps (1885-1927) was a pioneer of aviation. Second pilot to cross the English Channel in 1910, and the first to fly over Montreal and Toronto (in the same year), this hero was decorated for his endeavors during World War I (1914-1918).

As World War I was beginning, in October 1914; Gaspé Bay became the rallying point for an imposing Canadian war fleet on its way to Europe. The fleet included 31 ships, 31,300 men, 8,000 horses and some thirty trucks. At the end of the War, during the summer of 1919, the Cenotaph was erected in Gaspé to commemorate the 38 Gaspesians who fell on the field of honour.

This sculpture, by Québec artist Yves Trudeau, was completed in 1984 and offered to the Town of Gaspé by the Government of Québec in honor of the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Gaspé. “Hard edge” in its expression and with “minimalist” tendencies, the Discovery Place Monument explores the historic events of 1534, reminding us of Cartier’s caravel with its forecastle, deck and sails - a ship’s prow, waves, a beach and the Indigenous settlement that once existed where the monument now stands.

When the first settlers arrived on the Gaspésie forests covered the entire Coast and, although trees were a necessity, they were sometimes viewed as a nuisance by men trying to clear enough land for crops and animals. It was very easy to obtain all the wood they needed by going a very short distance to the dense forest that surrounded them with their axes, saws and a horse and sleigh.

One of the early settlers to whom the region, specifically the Cascapedia Bay area, is greatly indebted for its early development is William Cuthbert, a native of Scotland and descendant of that ancient Scottish family, of which theeighth century monk St. Cuthbert was a member.

The New Carlisle Postmaster’s Provisional Postal service in Canada began under the French regime in 1705 with delivery of mail by courier between Quebec City, Three-Rivers and Montreal.In 1763 it was taken over under the British Crown by Benjamin Franklin and formed part of the North American Postal System.

Fauvel Monument The Fauvel Monument was erected in honour of William LeBoutillier Fauvel (1850-1897), on the day of his burial 1897. Originally from Jersey Island, William Fauvel was without a doubt one of New Carlisle’s most illustrious citizens ever.Son of John Fauvel, he managed one of the town’s long disappeared landmarks, LeBoutillier Brothers Store.He was mayor of New Carlisle from 1889-1897. He was elected as the county’s first federal deputy in 1891, and re-elected in 1896.