Saint Croix Island, Maine

Saint Croix Island
International Historic Site

View from the New Brunswick interpretive center
Map showing the location of Saint Croix IslandInternational Historic Site
Location Washington County, Maine
Nearest city Calais, Maine
Coordinates 45°7′42″N 67°8′0″W / 45.12833°N 67.13333°W / 45.12833; -67.13333Coordinates: 45°7′42″N 67°8′0″W / 45.12833°N 67.13333°W / 45.12833; -67.13333
Area 44.90 acres (181,700 m2)
22.44 acres (0.0908 km2) federal
Established June 8, 1949 (U.S. National Monument); 1968 (Cdn. National Historic Event); 1984 (International Historic Site)
Governing body U.S. National Park Service and Parks Canada
Buildings on Saint Croix Island, 1613

Saint Croix Island (French: Île Sainte-Croix), long known to locals as Dochet Island, is a small uninhabited island in Maine near the mouth of the Saint Croix River that forms part of the Canada–United States border separating Maine from New Brunswick. The island was the site of an early attempt at French colonization by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons in 1604. In 1984 it was designated by the United States Congress as Saint Croix Island International Historic Site. There is no public access to the island, but there is a visitor contact station on the U.S. mainland and a display on the Canadian mainland opposite the island.

The 6.5 acre (26,000 m2) island measures approximately 200 yd (200 m) long by 100 yd (100 m) wide, and is located approximately 4 mi (6 km) upstream from the mouth of the river on Passamaquoddy Bay.

St. Croix Settlement

The island was called Muttoneguis by the Passamaquoddy Nation who had used or lived on the island for numerous centuries before European discovery.

French noble Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons established a settlement on Saint Croix Island in June 1604 under the authority of Henry IV, King of France. This outpost was one of the first attempts by France at year-round colonization in the territory they called l'Acadie. Earlier attempts by Jacques Cartier at Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, at Sable Island in 1598 by Marquis de La Roche-Mesgouez, and at Tadoussac, Quebec in 1600 by François Gravé Du Pont had failed.[1]

Cartographer Samuel de Champlain was part of the Dugua expedition and settlement on the small river island in 1604. The following spring, Champlain and François Gravé Du Pont, moved the settlement to a new location on the southern shore of the Bay of Fundy called Port-Royal. The Port Royal location was the first permanent European settlement in New France. During the winter more than half the settlers had perished due to a "land-sickness" believed to be scurvy. Champlain had discovered this new location earlier in the spring during a shoreline reconnaissance of the Bay of Fundy for a more suitable settlement site.

In 1608, Samuel de Champlain and some of the settlers moved from Port-Royal to a settlement on the Saint Lawrence River that later became Québec.

In October 1613, after having burned the French mission at Mount Desert Island, Samuel Argall went on to burn the old French buildings that remained on Sainte-Croix before he moved on to raid Port Royal, Nova Scotia.[2]

Heritage of St. Croix Island

Viewed from Maine

During a boundary dispute between Britain and the U.S. in 1797, the island was deemed to be under U.S. sovereignty by a survey of the river which determined it to be on the western side of the main river channel.

It became known as Bone Island in the 18th century after many of the graves were exposed by erosion. 23 sets of remains were removed in 1969 and subsequently reburied in 2003. Analysis of the bones showed that many of them had indications of scurvy, confirming the cause of the deaths described by Champlain. One skull showed signs of having been autopsied which Champlain wrote that he had ordered to try to discover the cause of their illness.[3]

The island was neutral territory in the War of 1812, leading it to be sometimes called Neutral Island.

Named by the French, Ile Ste-Croix, the island has also been called Demont's Island and Doucett Island.

Canada issued a nationally circulating quarter in 2004 that commemorated the island and the beginnings of Acadia there.{Royal Canadian Mint}

International Historic Site

In the United States, the island was designated Saint Croix Island National Monument by the United States Congress in 1949. The monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It was given its current designation by Congress as an International Historic Site on September 25, 1984, a unique designation in the national park systems of the United States and Canada. Since 1968, the island has been managed by the National Park Service from offices at Acadia National Park, the nearest staffed U.S. national park unit, in consultation with Parks Canada, which maintains a viewing and interpretation site on the New Brunswick side of the river.

In Canada, the island was first recognized in 1958 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board (HSMB) as having national historic significance. It recommended creation of Dochet Island National Historic Site, but this was rejected by the government on the basis that its location fell outside national jurisdiction. A decade later, in 1968, the HSMB reiterated the site's significance, suggesting Parks Canada "...cooperate with the United States National Parks [sic] Service in the development of the island as an Historic Park."[4] This was approved, and today Parks Canada operates St. Croix Island International Historic Site at Bayside, Charlotte County, a site overlooking the island, similar to the U.S. approach to the site's interpretation.

The two nations routinely cooperate on commemorative activities and promotions. Special commemorations by the two nations in 2004 marked the 400th anniversary of French settlement in North America. In 2009, the site started offering a full French translation of its U.S. website, offered by teen volunteer Olivier Fontenelle. Its Parks Canada website, like all others in its network, has been offered in French since first appearing online.

The HSMB designates three categories of commemoration: nationally significant Sites, Events, and Persons. While the HSMB had recommended Dochet Island National Historic Site in 1958, it was unclear whether the HSMB's later recommendation, in 1968, was to name it a Site or an Event. This was clarified in 2008. Relying on a 1960 HSMB decision that naming national historic sites outside Canada should be avoided, and in light of policy that Events and Persons outside the country may be designated, it decided that Dochet Island had been designated a national historic event in 1968.

However, since the 1968 designation was approved under the name "St. Croix Island", and this was the name used in the international agreement, the HSMB's Status of Designations Committee confirmed the official name of the designation which had referred to Dochet Island would be "Ste. Croix Island".[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Roger E. Riendeau (2007). A Brief History of Canada. Infobase Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4381-0822-3.
  2. ↑ Griffiths, E. From Migrant to Acadian. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2005. p.24
  3. ↑ http://www.livescience.com/history/061101_ap_earliest_autopsy.html
  4. ↑ Excerpt from the Status of Designations Committee Minutes, Historic Sites and Monuments Board, April 2008, p. 1.
  5. ↑ Excerpt from the Status of Designations Committee Minutes, Historic Sites and Monuments Board, April 2008, p. 2.

External links

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