Quick Search
|
141 Henry Street |
New Brunswick Tourism Region : Mirimichi River Valley
Description From Owner:
- This is one of New Brunswick' s most prominent place names, but its precise origin is not known.
- On his first voyage in 1534 Jacques Cartier described the area: 'We went in our longboats to (Blackland Point) and found the water so shallow that there was a depth of only one fathom.
- Some seven or eight leagues to the northeast of this cape lay another cape (Escuminac) and between the two there is a bay, in the form of a triangle, which ran back a long way.'
- Miramichi is likely from the Micmac 134 words Megamaage or Megamage, translated by Silas Rand as 'the land of the Micmacs.' (In 1875 Rand published A first reading book in the Micmac language and in 1888, Dictionary of the language of the Micmac Indians)
- On a 1672 map by Nicolas Denys the river is shown as Miramichy.
- The name is used to describe the entire watershed of the Miramichi R., the bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a lake in York C., the highway to Bathurst and the federal electoral district of Northumberland-Miramichi.
- (The name Miramichi may even be found in Massachusetts where a sportsman applied it to a pond (here in 1868). There is another community on nearby Bay du Vin also named Miramichi.
- In 1995 the new City of Miramichi was created by the amalgamation of the towns of Chatham and Newcastle, the villages of Douglastown, Loggieville and Nelson-Miramichi and the communities of Chatham Head, Douglasfield, Moorefield and Nordin.
- Chatham was the birthplace of Lemuel John Tweedie (1849-1917), premier from 1900 to 1907.
- He was described as one of New Brunswick's ablest and most popular premiers and created the Workmen's Compensation Board, admitted women to the practice of law and supported the Grand Falls hydroelectric development.
- One of New Brunswick' s best-known current literary figures, David Adams Richards, was born in Newcastle (now Miramichi) in 1950.
- His poems, short stories, plays and novels are almost exclusively set in this region. He has been awarded the Governor General ' s Award for Nights Below Station Street and was co-winner of the 2000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Mercy Among the Children.
- St. Michael's Basilica and several other spots in town are said to host the supernatural. Beaubears Island Shipbuilding and Boishébert is a national historic site of Canada.
- It commemorates the only known, undisturbed archeological site associated with the national significance of the 19th-century shipbuilding industry in New Brunswick.
- Under the leadership of Charles Deschamps de Boishébert, many Acadians found refuge here from 1756 to 1760. Prior to Acadian settlement in the region, the Micmac people camped on the island.
- Guided island tours and boat-charter services are available. There is no regular ferry service. The 1877 Beaverbrook House at 518 King George Route was the boyhood home of Lord Beaverbrook.
- The 1826 Historic Murray House at Ritchie Wharf Park on Ledden St. houses the Municipal Visitor Information Centre. The park is shipbuilding themed and has a boardwalk, playground, amphitheatre, restaurants, artists' gallery, boat launch and boat charter
- With permission from 'New Brunswick Place Names' David E. Scott 2009
Address of this page: http://nb.ruralroutes.com/Miramichi
