Petit-Rocher is a formerly incorporated Canadian village in Gloucester County,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. Sitting on both

Chaleur Bay frame, Satellite image of Chaleur Bay (NASA). Chaleur Bay is the large bay in the centre of the image; the Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is seen to the east.">Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.html" ;"title="Gaspé Peninsula ...

and

Nepisiguit Bay Nepisiguit Bay (from the Mi’kmaq word , which means "rough water") is located in northern New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the thr ...

20 km northwest of Bathurst, Petit-Rocher's residents are 89%

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

. On 1 January 2023, Petit-Rocher amalgamated with Beresford, Nigadoo, Pointe-Verte and all or part of ten local service districts to form the new town of

Belle-Baie Belle-Baie is a town in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It was formed through the 2023 New Brunswick local governance reforms. History Belle-Baie was incorporated on January 1, 2023 via the amalgamation of the former town of Beresf ...

. The community's name remains in use by the province's 911 system.

History

The village was founded in 1797 by

Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

settlers. The name literally means 'little rock', and is pronounced by most anglophones in the region as ''Petty Roche''. The name of the village is reputed to derive from the fact that the village's founders disembarked on a small rock. The village was named ''Little Roche'' from 1850 to 1854, then ''Madisco'' until 1870, and then ''Petit Rocher''. The hyphenated form ''Petit-Rocher'' was adopted in 2009. Some old maps have the name ''Petite Roche'' (1812) and ''Sainte Roque or Little Russia'' (1827).

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Petit-Rocher had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Language

Tourism

In 2012 and 2013, Petit-Rocher was host to the CCBHA's annual ball hockey tournament with a team from nearby

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

taking home the Allen, Paquet & Arseneau cup as champions for both tournaments.

Notable people

References

External links

* Acadie-Bathurst
Petit-Rocher

{{Coord, 47, 47, 2.1, N, 65, 42, 57.3, W, name=Petit-Rocher, display=title Communities in Gloucester County, New Brunswick Former villages in New Brunswick Local service districts of Gloucester County, New Brunswick Lighthouses in New Brunswick