The steamer lands us at the little village of Portage du Fort, at the foot of the series of rapids down which, from over the falls of the Calumet, the Ottawa thunders. The road, up hill and down gully, which replaces the portage path of ancient days, even now suggests the difficulties which caused this carrying-place to be called “Portage du Fort.”
Told by Harry Richardson:“After the logs were cut, I would work on the river drives. I’d be down home perhaps a month from the time the logs were out before the rivers opened up. When the ice went off, we got the word to go, because you had to drive the logs when the water was high and the water ran off quick up there.
THE GATINEAU
The word “bootlegging” apparently came into general use in the American Midwest in the 1880s. It denoted the practice of concealing flasks of illicit liquor in boot tops when going to trade with Indians.
The Equity, Pontiac’s only bilingual weekly, has been “the voice of the Pontiac” since 1883. Smith and Cowan started the paper in Bryson. After a number of moves, its present location is the 1850s Shawville Academy building. Its mandate is to report regional news for the people of Pontiac County.
For over 150 years, a general store was operated by the Thomson family at the corner of Victoria and Galipeau Streets, the main east-west and north-south crossroads in the very centre of the village of Thurso. History passed by its doorstep and the news of its inhabitants could be heard within its doors.
In the summer of 1909, a remarkable automobile journey was made from New Carlisle to Roche Percé. It would be considered ordinary today, hardly noteworthy even if travelling in an antique car. At the time, however, it was a different matter.
Gaspé, the scene of many historic events across the years, witnessed dramatic events in September 1758.
The great French fortress of Louisbourg had surrendered to the British forces in August. An expedition was then organized and dispatched to Gaspé to destroy French settlements and shipping in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe were in command of the naval and military forces respectively.
In October 1675, more than three centuries ago, Father Chrestien Le Clercq, a missionary of the Recollet or Reformed Franciscian Order of France, landed at Percé in Gaspesia.
Foreword:
Though the name of Frederick James Richmond continues to be recalled annually to the youth of Gaspé through the award of the Richmond scholarships, established by his brother George, the life and influence of this remarkable Gaspesian has faded with time and the passing away of those who knew him personally. Sweeping social changes have so altered the society of his native town of Gaspé that much of its earlier English heritage may soon be forgotten.