Villégiature anglophone au Bas-Saint-Laurent : Métis-sur-Mer, Saint-Patrice et Cacouna = Summer communities along the St. Lawrence River : Metis Beach, St. Patrick and Cacouna

Une nouvelle collection «les Cahiers de l'Estuaire» Plusieurs d'entre vous connaissent déjà la revue d'histoire régionale l:Estuaire, publiée deux fois l'an grâce à l'implication d'un réseau de collaborateurs compétents, bénévoles et extrêmement dévoués.Depuis longtemps, la petite équipe de la revue souhaitait élargir ses activités en lançant une nouvelle collection consacrée à des publications thématiques.Aujourd'hui, en réponse à une belle initiative d'Alexander Reford et Héritage Bas-Saint-Laurent, ce rêve est devenu réalité.C'est avec fierté que nous présentons au grand public le premier volume de la collection Les Cahiers de nstuaire, entièrement consacré à la villégiature anglophone dans notre région.À tous et toutes, bonne lecture ... et à un prochain Cahier!Paul LAROCQUE Pour Pierre COLLINS et Jean LARRIVÉE Membres du Comité de rédaction This edition of Les Cahiers de L'Estuaire is dedicated to chronicling the history of the summer communities along the St. Lawrence River.This is the first ofwhat Heritage Lower St. Lawrence wishes will be an annual issue to collect and publish articles on the history of the summer communities in the region.This publication is an initiative of Heritage Lower St. Lawrence -Héritage Bas-Saint-Laurent.Since the foundation of the organization in the summer of 2000, our group has nourished the idea of producing a special issue of Les Cahiers de L'Estuaire.The editors have graciously permitted me to be the gue st editor of this special issue.Devoted readers of this, the only historical review of the region, will find a range of articles, many of them devoted to exploring the story of communities which have thus far escaped much notice.The names of these communities are both poetic and evocative -Cacouna, Bic, Metis.Along with dozens of other communities in the region, they have been havens for visitors and tourists for generations.Each of these summer communities has its own history.As Clive Meredith writes of St. Patrick, sorne of them hosted distinguished visitors, such as Prime Ministers Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis St-Laurent.Cacouna and Little Metis hosted families whose names are indissociable from Quebec history: such as the Birks, MoIsons and Prices.The influx of vast numbers of visitors in July and August had a marked effect on these communities.The lives of those who lived there were closely intertwined with the tourists who arrived at the start of the summer and left at summer's end.These communities vary in their composition and evolution.Communities like Cacouna and Bic were flourishing communities, which were largely agricultural.Tourism provided a weI come supplement in income and created a stir of activity, but the life of the community was in large measure separate and not much unlike that in other communities along the St. Lawrence.Little Metis (now more commonly known as Metis Beach or Métis-sur-Mer) was unusual because it had permanent English-speaking residents, mostly descendants of Scottish settlers who had arrived in the 1820s.They formed the backbone of the community.Unlike the other summer resorts, in Metis it was the English-speaking residents who built or rented and maintained the summer houses.Often, they would work as cooks or servants to the English-speaking summer residents who came from Montreal or further afield.This created a unique dynamic, still to be observed today, of two communities of Anglophones, one permanent, the other transitory, both equally enduring.Today, there are less than 900 Anglophones who make their permanent home in the Lower St. Lawrence region.Fewer than 0,5% of the region's 200,000 residents are English-speaking, the smallest percentage of any region in Quebec.With the exception of Little Metis, there has never been any English-speaking community in the region.Today, like almost every other village in rural Quebec, Metis is fighting to maintain its village school and other institutions, trying to stem the exodus of youth and providing assistance to an ageing population.This edition of Les Cahiers de L'Estuaire is not intended to chronicle only the history of English Quebec.Rather, our goal is to collect and share the vast information on aspects of the region's history, which are relatively unknown.Heritage Lower St. Lawrence is based in Metis Beach, but hopes to collate information on the entire region.Because many of our members spend their summers in the region, this issue has a special emphasis on the summer communities of the region. Cahiers de "EstuaireThis special issue brings together articles on a range of topics written by a variety of authors over more than a century.The story of a trip over the lntercolonial by Fred Hamilton gives a wonderful glimpse of visiting Cacouna in 1876.One of the first accounts oftourism in the Lower St. Lawrence, the author mentions sorne of the attractions of the region -the sharp and bracing air and the glorious views.It also highlights the difficulties in reaching it.We forget today how adventurous were our ancestors who travelled down the St. Lawrence to their summer houses.The article by James William Dawson is written by one of the pioneers of the region.Dawson was first and foremost a geologist and he still indulged his interest in geology long after he became principal of McGill University.Dawson was one of the reasons why the tiny English-speaking village of Little Metis became a flourishing summer community.He came across the village on one of his exploratory trips and returned often.He built a summer house and many of his colleagues from McGill University followed him.Dawson's article, originally published in 1896, gives a brief glimpse of his meanderings around Metis, rock-hammer in hand.Not all of the Anglophones who came to the Lower St. Lawrence came for the scenery.William Price had extensive timber operations in the region, and as historian Pascal Gagnon relates, one of his principal interests lay along the Metis River and south to the headwaters of the river at the Metis lakes.Several of those who summered in the region left significant vestiges of their presence.Elsie Reford was among them.The garden she built at Grand-Métis was and is still today one of the most extraordinary gardens in North America.My article is a modest attempt to de scribe the genesis of the gardens and the influences, which led to its creation.Other articles introduce subjects, which establish the themes of articles, which might appear every issue.Thus, Clive Meredith contributes a profile of a community, describing his beloved St. Patrick.Pascal Gagnon writes about one of the seigneuries of the Lower St. Lawrence, the Seigneurie Fief Pachot.Julie Coulson writes a memoir of one of the writers from the region, her great aunt, Alice Sharples Baldwin

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