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 History
Natisgôsteg, Nadiscousti, Natiscosti, Anticosty: the island's very name calls to mind the men and women who were the first to set foot on its soil. Artifacts found on the island suggest that these first inhabitants frequented Anticosti at least 3,500 years ago. The Micmacs, who originated from the Gaspé Peninsula, and the Montagnais, who lived on the North Shore, found an abundance of fish and game on the island. According to Yves Ouellet, author of the book entitled Anticosti, L'éden
apprivoisé (Éditions du Trécarré 2000), Anticosti was also the scene of violent clashes involving a number of aboriginal. The definitive origin of the current place name is still uncertain. Some researchers believe that Natisgôsteg designates an "outpost land" in Micmac; others claim that the island gets its name from the Montagnais term "Nâtâkwan", meaning "the place where bear are hunted".
The first written description of the island was made by Jacques Cartier, who sailed along its shoreline in the summer of 1534. However, another century would pass before Anticosti welcomed its first colonists. Actually, it would be more fitting to say "its first master" as the entire island had been granted to a man who was already famous at the time. It was Louis Jolliet, a Canadian explorer who in 1673 had discovered the Mississippi. In 1680, Jolliet, who was named Seignior of Mingan and Anticosti islands, settled
on the island with his wife, children and five servants. The small group quickly set up a fishing and seal hunting station there. The war between France and England would bring to naught the efforts of the Seignior of Anticosti. In August 1690, the army of William Phipps, while on the way to Québec City, burnt down all of Jolliet's buildings. The island would once again become deserted, aside from a few shipwreck survivors that fate would occasionally cast upon the shores of Anticosti. In the century that followed,
the State built a few lighthouses, including that of Pointe-Sud-Ouest, created in 1831. Isolated on the immense island, the lighthouse keepers lived there with their families. During this period, Louis-Olivier Gamache, an eccentric character, nicknamed the Island sorcerer, reigned like a monarch over his island domain at the head of a bay on the west side of Anticosti.
 It was only after Confederation that a few families of fishers from the southern Gaspé Peninsula established a small hamlet at Anse aux Fraises, building their homes with wood obtained from shipwrecks. A little further north, another settlement was created at English Bay (today Baie-Sainte-Claire), whereas fishers from Newfoundland settled at Fox Bay at the other end of the island. In 1872,
a company was formed to colonize and develop the territory. However, the Anticosti Company soon went bankrupt, abandoning to their fate a number of families who had believed in the company's promises of prosperity, including the fishers of Fox Bay (today known as Baie du Renard). In 1895, only 62 families remained on the entire territory.
At the end of that year, a French multi-millionaire by the name of Henri Menier purchased île d'Anticosti. Co-heir with his brothers of a chocolate manufacturing business founded by his grandfather, Henri Menier was at the head of a multinational enterprise that owned the entire production and distribution chain for its products. Menier possessed several luxurious secondary residences, including Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley. But the "Chocolate King" dreamed of having a pristine territory where game
abounded, an isolated domain where he could spend his time hunting and fishing, his two passions in life. His friend Georges Martin-Zédé heard of the Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Menier would entrust this reserve captain with all the management and administration powers for Anticosti.
Under the iron rule of Georges Martin-Zédé, an almost feudal regime was set up on Anticosti. The island's inhabitants, forced to sell their homes, became tenants, in return for which they were assured a job in one of Menier's business operations. Other inhabitants left or were evicted from the island. At the director's request, the island was separated from the electoral division of Saguenay and it was the Regulations of Henri Menier that would apply on Anticosti. Considerable work was carried out: construction of a
model village (present-day Port-Menier), a wharf, a railway line, streets, houses and farm buildings. Salmon fishing camps and lobster hatcheries were also established at several locations. In 1905, Menier inaugurated the Scandinavian-style villa that he had had built facing the sea, a luxurious wooden manor where the marble of the fireplaces was complemented by the Gobelins tapestry. Rivière Jupiter was the site of fabulous salmon fishing trips and islanders soon began to hunt white-tailed deer, which Menier
introduced on Anticosti starting in 1897. Due to the abundance of softwood trees, commercial logging was also carried out. In 1913, Henri Menier's death slowed down the development of Anticosti considerably. His heirs felt that pursuing the island's development would prove to be too costly.
In 1926, the island changed hands and became the property of Wayagamack Pulp and Paper. Like the rest of Québec, Anticosti had entered the logging era and Port-Menier found itself transformed into a huge lumberjack camp. The rare well-to-do sport fishers would come to pit their skills against Anticosti's legendary salmon. Logging continued until 1971. Consolidated Bathurst, the logging company at the time, decided to sell the island, deeming its business operations there to be unprofitable. It was the Government of
Québec that purchased Anticosti: after more than a century of private ownership, the island once again became part of the public domain. In 1982, the State allowed Anticosti residents to buy the homes and businesses on the island. Port-Menier became a municipality, managed by a duly elected council. Outside the village, the territory was divided into outfitting establishments, the biggest of which was entrusted to the Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (Sépaq). Well aware of the need to ensure the
permanent protection of certain exceptional elements and fragile environments of Anticosti, the State created Parc national d'Anticosti in 2001, which covers an area of 572 km2. At the dawn of the 21st century, a new era has begun for île d'Anticosti, this priceless jewel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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