1

On the Gaspe Coast
1895
Gaspe Coast, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
Cascapedia River Museum Collection

2

The Cascapedia River is situated on the Gaspe Peninsula (Gaspesie). It is located on the eastern tip of the province of Quebec, north of New Brunswick. It is mostly a coastal region being surrounded by the St. Lawrence estuary and gulf as well as by the Bay of Chaleur. The Gaspe Peninsula is 560 km from Montreal and 340 km from Quebec City by road.

3

Sir William Logan
1798-1875
Cascapedia Valley

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The Geological Survey of Canada was organized in 1841 in an attempt to gain a more thorough understanding of Lower Canada's geology, and then thought to have important natural resource potential. Sir William Logan, a highly intelligent Welshman was chosen to head the survey team and with his small crew they crossed the Shick Shock mountains in the late summer of 1844 mapping most of the territory in great detail.

Hoagy Carmichael

5

The Settlers
1830's
Cascapedia St Jules

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The early Acadians settled among the Native Mik'maq people as early as the 1760's. The Loyalists arrived on the Coast in 1784 and settled in the Cascapedia Bay area. There were also the Scottish and Irish farmers who arrived and took up farming along the both sides of the rivers.

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Life in the Valley
1830's onward
Cascapedia St Jules

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The early settlers from Scotland and Ireland braved the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life most times because of crop failure or religious prosecution.

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The settlement
1830's onward
Cascapedia St Jules

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When the early settlers arrived there was little evidence of farming and the government had to provide staples to the settlers.

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A Hard Day's work
1840's onward
Cascapedia St Jules

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The settlers settled in a area where they had no choice but to adjust to the harsh way of life on the Gaspe Coast.

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Early Days on the Cascapedia
1830's
Cascapedia Valley

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By 1833, the settlement at the mouth of the Grand Cascapedia held fewer than 300 people. All the early settlers who had cleared farmland in the Valley had been granted land patents in numbered lots in exchange for settling and farming the land.