The Landscape – Water to Hilltop

Metis has a range of landscapes: field and forest, peat bog and shoreline. Much of the community is perched near the outcrops that form a rocky ribbon along the coast.

Black and white photograph of a dirt road winding between houses, fields and barns. A wooden fence runs along the left side of the dirt road. A boy is leaning against a wooden post.

Early roads in Metis hugged the St. Lawrence. It was a picturesque landscape, but the road often had to be cleared of debris left from high winds and waves before vehicles could continue on their way.

One of the last seigniories to be settled in Quebec, Metis was also one of the smallest, 33,000 acres in all. John Macnider’s settlement was peopled from 1818 by about forty families who accepted his invitation to leave their native Scotland. They settled the long thin farms that stretched back from the St. Lawrence, provided with tools and seed for their crops by their beneficent seigneur.

Oblique black and white aerial photograph showing agricultural and forested lands along the Mitis River to the St. Lawrence River. The different types of culture are presented as a checkerboard of different colours and textures.

This aerial photograph from 1938 shows the winding shoreline of the St. Lawrence at Métis. The beautiful patchwork landscape is still visible today, though the mix of fields and forests has changed: much of the land that was once cultivated has since been reclaimed by nature.

In his memoir from the 1870s, John Ferguson remarked that Macnider’s settlers were talented fishermen, but not very skilled at farming or forestry.

Your forefathers were in most cases mechanics, weavers and fishermen – few understood the art of forestry. They chopped trees in the style the beaver adopts, all round the stump.

The early settlers survived by fishing and a lot of farming. If they were not good farmers when they arrived, they became so over time. ‘Metis Potatoes’ were sent by boat to market in Quebec City by the 1860s. But making ends meet was difficult. Some families left for other parts of Canada and the United States.

Postcard presenting a black and white photograph of the Seaside Hotel of Metis Beach. The imposing three-storey wooden hotel has two wings. One runs along the road and the other runs backwards from the center of the first wing. The courtyard is hidden by a young cedar hedge , where that reveals two sun umbrellas are seen.

Built in 1875 and expanded in 1922, the Seaside House Hotel was the largest (and some say most luxurious) hotel in Metis Beach.

Many that remained embraced the opportunities offered by tourism. The rocky terrain near the shore that was poor for farming proved ideal as building sites for cottages. Metisians became talented builders, constructing homes, boarding houses and hotels to serve the growing clientele of summer visitors who found the cool weather and pure air an ideal spot for a health holiday.

Postcard featuring a black and white photograph taken from the St. Lawrence rRiiver showing summer residences and the Seaside Hotel built along Beach Drive Street along the St. Lawrence River.

“We are having a fine time” is how one tourist described his visit to Metis in August 1906.

Getting There – Getting to Metis on Foot, by Boat, Train, Plane and Car Tourism Entrepreneurs – Building Hotels for Weary Travellers