Histoire Locale

Ponts couverts

adamsville.jpgVingt-et-un ponts couverts authentiques existent encore dans les Cantons-de-l'Est. À ceux-ci, on peut ajouter deux répliques semi-authentiques d'un cru plus récent. Il y a un siècle, des centaines de ponts couverts traversaient les rivières dans la région. La plupart des villages en possédaient au moins un sinon plusieurs.

Patrimoine menacé

burningchurch_0.jpgLes vestiges de notre passé disparaissent. Ou parfois, ils sont altérés au point de devenir méconnaissables. D'innombrables vestiges historiques ont disparus des Cantons-de-l'Est au cours des années. Notre patrimoine architectural se trouve particulièrement vulnérable.

Potton Springs

pottonsprings.2.jpgBâti en 1875, le Potton Springs Hotel et ses célèbres sources sulfureuses attireront des milliers de visiteurs en provenance de l’est de l’Amérique du Nord. Les curistes arrivaient par train – le Missisquoi and Black Rivers Valley Railway qui deviendra ensuite l’Orford Mountain Railway et, finalement, le Canadien Pacifique.

THE IRISH HERITAGE OF THE LAURENTIANS

This month the McCord Museum of Montreal opens an exhibit entitled “Being Irish” to celebrate over 250 years of the Irish presence in Quebec. Usually what comes to mind when referring to our Irish history is Montreal and, to a lesser extent, Quebec City, where people of Irish origin have been, and have remained prominent in large numbers consistently for over two centuries. However, less known but equally important is the Irish rural heritage in Quebec. One area, first occupied by Irish settlers, was the vast tract of unsettled wilderness, to the north of the St. Lawrence.

THE STONES OF RAWCLIFFE

In May 2008, I got a call from Heather (Stone) Foley, who lives in Rawcliffe, Quebec. She told me James Stone was visiting from BC. I had been a classmate of Heather’s throughout grade school in Grenville and a good friend of her younger brother, James. But I had only seen him two or three times in the intervening fifty years.