It is very large (217 km/135 mi long and 16–48 km/10–30 mi 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.
The entire island constitutes one municipality officially known as L'Île-d'Anticosti.
History
Salmon fisherman on riviere À l'Huile
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, its owners generally using it for the harvesting of timber. For example, the French Canadian Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau owned it among other seigneuries and made money from them.
In 1895 Anticosti was sold to Frenchchocolate makerHenri 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. The deer thrived and today the population exceeds 100,000 while the island's moose population is about 1,000. It has been reported that black bears, which rely on berries to bulk on for the winter, had lived on the island until the introduction, perhaps due to the deer eating the berries bare.[1]
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. About 60% is under management by Sépaq and since April 2001, 572 square kilometers (221 sq mi) has been designated as a national conservation park. 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.
References
^ "Revenge of the Venison", p.18, Discover, August 2006.
E. Billings, Geological Survey of Canada: Catalogue of the Silurian Fossils of Anticosti (Montreal, 1866)
Logan, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from its Commencement to 1863 (Montreal, 1863–1865)
Gretchen Eshbaugh Engel, Though Memory Plays Me False. A Story of Anticosti. The St. Lawrence River Isle of Enchantment, the life of William Hardy Eshbaugh and the role he played in its early development. (Southbury, CT, 1971)
Henri Menier. Anticosti, 1905. (Paris? 1905?). 30 original photographs by Henri Menier. Autographed presentation copy to Lord Grey. Collection of University of Saskatchewan Library, Saskatoon, Canada.
Alberta C. Pew, Joseph N. Pew, Jr., Margaret R. Leisenring, Edward B. Leisenring, Jay Cooke, A.E.F.: Anticosti Expeditionary Force (Philadelphia?: Privately Printed, 1935). Account of a private fishing expedition to the island.
