Anticosti Island () is a large but sparsely populated island belonging to the Canadian province of Quebec. It lies in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is separated from mainland Quebec by the Jacques Cartier and Honguedo straits. Administratively, it forms a municipality of the Côte-Nord region.

Toponymy

The name Anticosti first appeared in the writings of Samuel de Champlain in 1603, as Anticosty. It apparently represents a corruption of the earlier Nadicousti, recorded by André Thevet in 1586 and described by him as the Amerindian name for the island (the European name, bestowed by Jacques Cartier in 1535, being Isle de l'Assumption). Its origin and meaning are unclear, though William Francis Ganong speculatively ascribed it to the St. Lawrence Iroquoian language.

The Montagnais name for the island is Notiskuan, meaning "where bears are hunted", while the Micmac name is Natigôsteg, meaning "forward land".

History

Indigenous history

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.

Colonisation and settlement

The French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed along its shore in the summer of 1534. From that time on, France had officially incorporated the island into its colonial empire.

The island's first European settlers arrived in 1680 when Louis XIV gave Louis Jolliet the Seigneury of the Mingan Archipelago and Anticosti Island as compensation for reconnoitring the Mississippi and Hudson Bay. 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.

After Jolliet's death in 1700, the island was divided among his three sons and the Jolliet family retained ownership until 1763 when the island became part of British North America under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War.

That same year, the island was annexed to Newfoundland until 1774 when it was returned to Lower Canada and annexed again to Newfoundland from 1809 to 1825. It became a part of Quebec (as Lower Canada came to be called) at the Canadian Confederation in 1867.

During these years the island property changed hands several times, its owners generally using it for the harvesting of timber; otherwise no real development took place. For example, the French Canadian Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau owned it among other seigneuries and made money from them.

Late 19th-century settlement

In 1874, it was bought by the Anticosti Island Company and they founded the villages at English Bay and Fox Bay. Most of the inhabitants, however, continued to be the few keepers of the island's many lighthouses. Because of the number of shipwrecks around the island, stores of provisions were also maintained around the island for sailors who might be washed ashore.

In 1882, the Parish of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption was founded, a term referring to Cartier's name for the island. In 1884, the island became property of the Stockwell brothers who formed a forestry company two years later. But they were unsuccessful and the company lasted only five years.

Ownership by forestry companies

thumb|left|Port Menier village, around 1920

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 operation and sold it to the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company in 1926 for $6,000,000.

For the next five decades, the island was used almost exclusively by forestry companies which harvested timber and built some infrastructure, mainly roads, but abandoned the villages at English Bay and Fox Bay.

Government ownership and management

In 1974, the government of Quebec purchased the island from the forestry company Consolidated Bathurst Ltd. for $23,780,000. Anticosti was placed under management by the Ministry of Recreation, Hunting and Fishing (ministère du Loisir de la Chasse et de la Pêche) and in 1983 the process began to set up a working municipal structure.

It is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait, and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.

Anticosti Island is larger than Prince Edward Island but sparsely populated (218 people in 2016), with most of the permanent population in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island; this population once consisted chiefly of the keepers of the lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The entire island constitutes one municipality known as L'Île-d'Anticosti.

Due to more than 400 shipwrecks off its coasts, Anticosti Island is sometimes called the "Cemetery of the Gulf".

Anticosti Island is part of the eastern St. Lawrence lowlands. It is long and has a maximum breadth of — times as large as the province of Prince Edward Island. Its coastline is long, and is rocky and dangerous, offering little shelter for ships except in Gamache, Ellis, and Fox Bays. There are large shoals to the south.

Topographically, Anticosti Island can be divided into three distinct regions: two lowland areas, rarely exceeding in elevation, in the eastern and western thirds of the island linked along the coast; and a central highland forming a plateau that rises to just over . This plateau is a unidirectional structure slightly tilted to the south, and is characterized by rolling cuestas. The rocks exposed on the island form a continuous sedimentary stratum more than thick. These are the most complete strata in eastern North America of the Ordovician and Silurian periods.

Flora and fauna

Flora

Every summer from 1924 to 1928, Brothers of the Christian Schools Marie-Victorin and Rolland-Germain explored the Anticosti-Minganie. The two botanists made many discoveries, including Senecio pseudo-arnica var. rollandii or Senecio rollandii as well as the Mingan thistle Cirsium minganense and Botrychium minganense. The botanists explored the coasts of Anticosti Island aboard a refurbished old fishing vessel, the Virginia.

The archives of the University of Montreal present on Flickr: Anticosti, a land of immense spaces, the sea all around and a social world of the 1920s gone forever, series of photos by Marie-Victorin: Brother Kirouac (1885-1944).

In 2004, the island's vascular flora was estimated at 700 species. Rare Plants of the Mingan Archipelago, Parks Canada 2023, said that nearly a tenth of Anticosti Island's flora are rare plants, most of which colonize open habitats associated with rivers (cliffs, taluses or pebbled surfaces) and mineral bogs. Anticosti Island is home to the rare orchid, Cypripedium arietinum Ait. f. (Cypripède tête-de-bélier; ram's head lady's slipper). While populations are declining elsewhere in eastern North America, the orchid flourishes here abundantly, making Anticosti a refuge for this plant.

The forests of Anticosti Island are typical boreal forest, with common species such as white spruce, balsam fir, and black spruce. It is distinguished by some minor stands of American white birch and trembling aspen.

  • Picea glauca (Moench) Voss (Épicéa glauque, Épinette blanche; white spruce).
  • Abies balsamea (Linné) Miller (Sapin baumier, Sapin; balsam fir).
  • Picea mariana (Miller) BSP (Épicéa marial, Épinette noire; black spruce).
  • Betula papyrifera Marshall (Bouleau à papier, Bouleau blanc, Bouleau à canot; canoë birch, American white birch).
  • Populus tremuloides Michaux (Peuplier faux-tremble, Tremble; aspen).

Balsam fir is slowly being replaced with white spruce because of intensive grazing done by white-tailed deer and by periodic outbreaks of hemlock looper and spruce budworm. About a quarter of the island is covered by peat lands.

<gallery heights="200" mode="packed" caption="Flora on the island, overview">

File:Cypripedium arietinum - Flickr 003.jpg|Cypripedium arietinum Ait. f.

File:EtangCastor.jpg|Boreal forest

File:Pinguicula_vulgaris_002.jpg|Pinguicula vulgaris L. (Grassette vulgaire; common butterwort). Carnivorous plant, Mc Donald River bank

File:Dryas_drummondii_950707_18a.jpg|Dryas drummondii Richardson. (Dryade de Drummond; Drummond's mountain-avens), Trans-Anticosti Route, km 144, secteur Vauréal

File:Draba incana 014.jpg|Draba incana L. (Drave blanchâtre; twisted whitlow grass), pebbles and limestone rocks, shore at Baie-Sainte-Claire

File:Orchis_rotundifolia_004.jpg|Orchis rotundifolia (Orchis à feuille ronde; small round-leaved orchid), Mc Donald River bank

  1. Hyperoodon ampullatus (Hypéroodon boreal, Hypéroodon arctique; northern bottlenose whale).
  2. Delphinapterus leucas (Béluga, Bélouga, Baleine blanche, Dauphin blanc, Marsouin blanc; beluga whale).
  3. Physeter macrocephalus (Grand cachalot, Cachalot, Cachalot macrocéphale; sperm whale).
  4. Lagenorhynchus acutus (Lagénorhynque à flancs blancs, Dauphin à flancs blancs; Atlantic white-sided dolphin).
  5. Lagenorhynchus albirostris (Dauphin à nez blanc, Dauphin à bec blanc, Lagénorhynque à bec blanc; white-beaked dolphin).
  6. Orcinus orca (Orque, Épaulard; Killer Whale).
  7. Globicephala melas (Globicéphale commun, Globicéphale noir, Dauphin pilote; long-finned pilot whale).
  8. Phocoena phocoena (Marsouin commun, Cochon de mer, Dieu des mers; harbour porpoise).
  9. Eubalaena glacialis (Baleine franche de l'Atlantique nord, Baleine noire de l'Atlantique nord, Baleine de Biscaye; North Atlantic right whale).
  10. Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Petit rorqual; minke whale).
  11. Balaenoptera musculus (Baleine bleue, Rorqual bleu; blue whale).
  12. Megaptera novaeangliae (Rorqual à bosse, Baleine à bosse; humpback whale).
  13. Balaenoptera physalus (Rorqual commun; fin whale).

Originally, there were probably only seven indigenous species of land mammals; Martes americana and Ursus americanus have now been extirpated:

  • Vulpes vulpes (Renard roux; red fox), including melanistic individuals.
  • Lontra canadensis (Loutre de rivière; river otter).
  • Peromyscus maniculatus (Souris sylvestre, souris du soir; deer mouse).
  • Martes americana (Martre d'Amérique; American marten).
  • Ursus americanus (Ours noir; black bear).
  • Myotis lucifugus (Petite chauve-souris brune; little brown bat).
  • Eptesicus nilssonii (Sérotine de Nilsson, sérotine boréale; northern bat).

thumb|[[Odocoileus virginianus (Cerf de Virginie, chevreuil; white-tailed deer). Port-Menier (village)]]

In order to make Anticosti Island a hunter's "paradise", several animal species have been introduced; starting in 1896, the island became an unprecedented biological experiment. In all, sixteen introduced species have been attempted, with six proving to be unsuccessful, namely bison, caribou, elk, mink and fisher. However, for ten species, it has been a beneficial introduction; six species of terrestrial mammals (white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, snowshoe hare and muskrat), two species of frogs, and two species of non-migratory birds (ruffed grouse and the spruce grouse).

Of all these species introduced, the "success" of white-tailed deer is particularly noteworthy. From an initial group of about 200 (introduced in 1896 and 1897), the number of white-tailed deer has grown to an estimated 37,000 animals in 2018, representing a density of 4.7 deer/km<sup>2</sup>.

The brook trout, Atlantic salmon and American eel visit the island's shores and swim up several rivers of the island.

Some 221 bird species, distributed among 21 avian families, have been observed on Anticosti Island. It is home to nearly 60% of the known breeding sites of the bald eagle in the province of Quebec.

File:Rorqual_122.jpg|Humpback whales, females and cubs, Whale Research Expeditions with Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS)

File:Rorqual_126.jpg|Humpback whales, dorsals, pectoral fins, Whale Research Expeditions with Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS)

</gallery>

Municipality of L'Île-d'Anticosti

Access and transportation

Access to the island is either by boat or plane. From April to mid-January, the commercial shipping company Relais Nordik services Port-Menier twice weekly with a passenger and cargo vessel.

The Port-Menier Airport is serviced by Air Liaison which provides regular scheduled flights to Sept-Îles and Havre-St-Pierre. There are two other aerodromes on the island, both towards the eastern end. Rivière-aux-Saumons (CTH7) is located on the northern side of the island and was paved in July 2010; Rivière Bell (CRB5) is gravel and is located on the southern side. These are used by outfitters and charter companies that provide private air services during the tourist season.

The Henri-Menier Road or Transanticostienne Road, the island's unpaved main road, stretches from Port-Menier to the eastern tip, with numerous forest roads branching off to provide access to various tourist locations and logging concessions. Car rental is available in Port-Menier.

Tourism

Because of its untamed wilderness and abundant wildlife, Anticosti Island is known for its hunting, fishing and outdoor opportunities and it attracts some 3,000 to 4,000 hunters per year.

According to UNESCO, the fossil record on Anticosti Island is the most complete palaeontological record representing the first mass extinction of animal life on a global scale, approximately 447–437 million years ago.

The World Heritage Site includes the entire coastline of Anticosti Island, except for the area surrounding the village of Port-Menier.<gallery widths="200" mode="packed" heights="160" caption="Vauréal Canyon">

File: Chute Vauréal - Anticosti.jpg|Cliff wall, fall and Vauréal River

File:Anticosti_fossiles_001.jpg|Fossil tabulate coral, in the gravel, at the foot of the wall

File:Anticosti_fossiles_006.jpg|Fossil to be identified, in the gravel, at the foot of the wall

</gallery>

The Vauréal River, with its source in Lake Vauréal, flows 25 km, south then northeast, in the eastern part of the island. The salmon go up the river to the Vauréal Falls, 13 km from the coast, crossing the Vauréal canyon where the river is enclosed between two limestone walls. underlies the Anticosti Islands and extends to surrounding areas in Quebec, Ontario and much of northeastern United States. On February 8, 2011, the citizen group "Non au Pétrole et au Gaz au Québec" released one of the biggest petitions in Quebec history against fracking in the province of Quebec with 128,000 signatures thinking it would prevent the oil and gas exploration on Anticosti. In June 2011, the Quebec firm Pétrolia claimed to have discovered about 30 billion barrels of oil on the island of Anticosti, which is the first time that significant reserves have been found in the province.

In February 2014, Premier of Quebec Pauline Marois announced that the provincial government would help finance two exploratory shale gas operations as a prelude to hydraulic fracturing on the island, with the province pledging $115-million to finance drilling for two separate joint ventures in exchange for rights to 50% of the licences and 60% of any commercial profit. It was the first oil and gas deal of any size for the province. With the change in government that occurred in April 2014, the Liberals of Philippe Couillard could change that decision. Petrolia Inc., Corridor Resources and Maurel & Prom formed one joint-venture, while Junex Inc. was still seeking a private partner.

On June 4, 2013, the citizen group "Non au Pétrole et au Gaz au Québec", realizing that fracking continued to be a viable method of oil extraction on Anticosti, released another petition that garnered 26,000 signatures against fracking, exploration and exploitation of oil and gas on Anticosti Island and asked for a moratorium and an environmental evaluation. Geological engineer Marc Durand gave a presentation at a conference explaining that a minimum of 12,000 wells would be necessary for this exploitation and would put Quebec in debt, considering the 12 million dollar cost of one of these wells. A year later, when Pauline Marois announced an investment of 115 million dollars for Petrolia to continue the exploration, the same petition increased up to 36,000 signatures. The government started a BAPE (environmental evaluation) specific for Anticosti and the report, published on October 3, 2022, is in favour of creating a protected area on the island.