Cascapédia

Cascapédia lies on the Gaspé coast of Quebec, where the Cascapédia River empties into the Cascapédia Bay, a small bay of the Baie des Chaleurs. The river rises in the Chic-Choc Mountains and runs about 120 kilometres to the sea through forest, and it has long been recognised as one of Quebec’s richest Atlantic salmon rivers. In 1835 the surveyor Joseph Hamel noted the abundance of fish in it, including trout, salmon and whitefish.

This is Mi’kmaq country, part of the district of Gespe’gewa’gi. The river’s name comes from the Mi’kmaq gesgapegiag, usually explained as the place where the river widens or a broad river with a strong current, and a Mi’kmaq summer community stood on the coast. It first appears on Franquelin’s map of 1686 as Kichkabeguiak. By at least 1784 Mi’kmaq families had begun to settle permanently along the river, and from an early period they also made maple sugar on Horse Island. Rivers, forests and the bay supplied fish, game and the means of travel for the people who lived here before and after European contact.