Minganie () is a

regional county municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM (, , MRC) is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities. In some older English translations they were called county regional municipality. Regional county municipalit ...

on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

region of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. Its territory includes

Anticosti Island Anticosti () is an island located between the Jacques Cartier and Honguedo Straits, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in L'Île-d'Anticosti (Municipality), Minganie MRC, Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada. UNESCO's World Heritage On September 19, 2023, ...

Toponymy

Both the largest (128,473 km²) and the second least populated, the

of Minganie extends from

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

to the middle of the Honguedo Strait in the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

and includes the

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

of Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent RCM and

Construction worker A construction worker is a person employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definitions By some definitions, construction workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers ...

s, transport workers,

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

and trappers are also found there in larger proportions than in Quebec in general. The origins of Minganie's population can be traced to

Innu The Innu/Ilnu ('man, person'), formerly called Montagnais (French for ' mountain people'; ), are the Indigenous Canadians who inhabit northeastern Labrador in present-day Newfoundland and Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to ...

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

and Gaspesians pioneers and its new residents who arrived via Route 138 (The Whale Route - Route Jacques-Cartier), opened in 1976.

Administration

The RCM administration is seat is

Havre-Saint-Pierre Havre-Saint-Pierre () is a municipality located on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Côte-Nord region, Minganie RCM, Quebec, Canada. History In 1857, a group of Acadian families arrived, in 1872, the Parish of Saint-Pierre-d ...

. It has an area of according to Quebec's ''

Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (, , abbr. MAMH) is a government ministry in the Canadian province of Quebec. It is responsible for overseeing the provincial government's relations with all Quebec municipalities, regional governments, ...

'' (which includes coastal, lake, and river water territory), or a land area of according to

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

. Its population in the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

was 6,467. The majority live in Havre-Saint-Pierre. Minganie and the neighbouring Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality are grouped into the single

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

of Minganie—Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent (known as Minganie–Basse-Côte-Nord before 2010). The combined population at the 2021 Canadian census was 9,849. Until 2002, Minganie RCM encompassed the entire lower north shore right up to Blanc-Sablon. In 2002, it lost all the coastal communities east of the

Natashquan River The Natashquan is a river in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. It flows south into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Geography The river has its source just south of the boundary between the Atlantic and Saint Lawrence r ...

when the Basse-Côte-Nord Territory was formed. In July 2010, the RCM lost another 44% of its territory when the (uninhabited) Petit-Mécatina unorganized territory was transferred to the newly created Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality, which superseded Basse-Côte-Nord.

Overview of the region

Several portions of territory on the Minganie are dedicated specifically to the protection and maintenance of heritages. File:Baie_Johan_Beetz_006.jpg, Johan Beetz House (Le Chateau) Piashti Bay Piashti River, rock of

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

File:Baie Johan Beetz 014.jpg, Wastishou Migratory Bird Sanctuary File:011_078_Iles_Mingan.jpg, Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, geological site File:Riviere au Tonnerre 032.jpg, Sault Plat River, geological site File:Chute Vauréal - Anticosti.jpg,

UNESCO's World Heritage

Subdivisions

There are 9 subdivisions and 2 native reserves within the RCM: ;Municipalities (8) * Aguanish * Baie-Johan-Beetz *

* L'Île-d'Anticosti * Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan * Natashquan * Rivière-au-Tonnerre * Rivière-Saint-Jean ;Unorganized Territory (1) * Lac-Jérôme ;Native Reserves (2)
(not associated with RCM) * Mingan *

Nutashkuan Nutashkuan ( INAC) or Natashquan ( CGNDB) (sometimes Natashquan 1) is a First Nations reserve in the Canadian province of Quebec, belonging to the Première Nation des Innus de Nutashkuan band. The reserve is located on the north shore of the ...

Demographics

Transportation

Sea - Air - Ground

Until the arrival of The Whale Route (Route 138) in 1976 and 1996, the only regular means of access to the area was the boat service maintained during the navigation season by Clarke Steamship Company, Ltd. The regularity of the service becomes more and more uncertain from the month of September, depending on the date of the arrival of winter with its snow, ice, storms and fog. However, it is possible to reach the area by chartering

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

s that can easily land under favourable atmospheric conditions in many deep bays and on windward waters sheltered by islands.

Route & trails

Highways and numbered routes that run through the RCM, including external routes that start or finish on its borders. * Autoroutes ** None * Principal Highways ** - The Whale Route * Secondary Highways ** None * External Routes ** None In 2024, the Côte-Nord region is part of the network of the 33 000 km of

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Ho ...

s of The Federation of Snowmobile Clubs of Quebec and La Minganie

Snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

Club, based in Les Escoumins, offer detailed interactive maps on the different circuits and their points of services.

River basins

There are a number of large rivers that flow in a generally north–south direction through Minganie to enter the Gulf. Near the coast the river basins tend to narrow in towards the river mouth, and between their mouths are areas that drain into the Gulf through smaller streams. From west to east, the larger river basins, which may cover parts of

, Sept-Rivières or Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, are:

Flora

Conrad Kirouac avec chardon de Mingan en 1928

With the exception of a few enclaves, the ecological region of Minganie is mainly covered by large

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

forests and a few laricinin fields (

Larix laricina ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

(Du Roi) K. Koch). There are also

White spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains of the United States and Canada * ''Picea glauca ''Picea glauca'', the whi ...

(Picea glauca (Moench) Voss.), Dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa Minchx), Rough alder (Alnus rugosa (DuRoi Spreng.) and Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux). Brothers Marie-Victorin and Rolland Germain F.E.C. explored the region from 1924 to 1928. Their work has raised awareness in the scientific community of the enormous value of the Mingan Archipelago. Since then, other

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

s have added to the

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

and

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

knowledge of this sector. The vegetation of the Mingan Islands belongs to the Chibougamau-Natashquan boreal forest region, which is dominated by

Black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of Newfoundland and Labrador and is tha ...

. The high latitude and low altitude, combined with the proximity of the cold currents of

, explain the

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

vegetation specific to the Minganie. The entirely

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcare ...

nature of the horizontal stratified rocks, which make up the Anticosti - Minganie, exerts a profound influence on the structure of the flora and on the choice of species. Remarkable for its richness, the flora includes 350

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...

s including the presence of two rare taxa: Cirsium foliosum var. Minganense and Cypripedium passerinum var. Minganense. Sixty species are new to the list of Minganie harvests compiled by Marie-Victorin and Rolland-Germain (1969). There were also 150

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s and 152

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s, 29 of which were additions to the Nouveau Catalogue des lichens, published by Lepage (1972). Overwiew of the diversity File:, Ledum groenlandicum Retzius. — Lédon du Groenland. — Thé du Labrador, Thé velouté. — (Labrador Tea). File:011_045_Epilobium.jpg,

Epilobium angustifolium ''Chamaenerion angustifolium'' is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family, Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed and in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb. It is also known by the synonyms ''Chameri ...

Linné. — Épilobe à feuilles étroites. — Bouquets rouges. — (Fireweed). File:Spirantes romanzoffiana 005.jpg, Spiranthes romanzoffiana Chamisso. – Spiranthe de Romanzoff. – (Romanzoff's ladies'-tresses). File:Campanula_rotundifolia_002a.jpg,

Campanula rotundifolia ''Campanula rotundifolia'', the common harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northe ...

Linné. – Campanule à feuilles rondes. – (Bluebell). File:Ledum groenlandicum 018.jpg, Ledum groenlandicum. — Lédon du Groenland. — Thé du Labrador, Thé velouté. — (Labrador Tea). File:Rubus_chamaemorus_009.jpg,

Rubus chamaemorus ''Rubus chamaemorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family. Its English common names include cloudberry, Nordic berry, bakeapple (in Newfoundland and Labrador), knotberry and knoutberry (in England), aqpik or low-bush salmonberry ( ...

Linné. — Ronce petit-mûrier. — Mûres blanches, Blackbières, Plaquebières, Chicoutés. — (Cloudberry).

Fauna

Terrestrial mammals

During the summers of 1964 and 1965, during geological research, Jean Depatie with a team of geologists and students, assisted by 3 canoemen and

lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...

s, plus a cook, explored 440 square miles of a territory stretching from Sept-Îles to Blanc Sablon, in the Lac à l'Ours region. In the field, scientists noted an abundance of Canadian beavers, a few otters and American mink, many hares, partridges and a multitude of ducks. Caribou and moose are scarce while black bears and red foxes abound. *

Castor canadensis The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and has been introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Fi ...

. -Castor du Canada -North American Beaver. * Lontra canadensis. – Loutre du Canada. -North American river otter *

Ondatra zibethicus The muskrat or common muskrat (''Ondatra zibethicus'') is a medium-sized semiaquatic rodent native to North America and an introduced species in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands over various climates ...

L. – Rat musqué. -Muskrat *

Vulpes vulpes The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

L. -Renard roux. -Red fox * Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. -Écureil roux - American red squirrel * Lepus americanus. – Snowhoe hare. Lièvre d'Amérique * Mustela erminea L. – Stoat. -Hermine *

Ursus americanus The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), or simply black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear which is endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with a diet v ...

. - Ours noir. - (Black Bear) *

Alces alces The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, Largest cervids, largest and heaviest extant taxon, extant species of deer and the monotypic taxon, only specie ...

. Orignal, Élan. -(Moose) * Certain species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s and a number of small rodents

Marine mammals

The waters of the St. Lawrence Estuary are internationally recognized as a vital feeding ground for rare or common species of marine mammals. *

Blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

Right whale Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus ''Eubalaena'': the North Atlantic right whale (''E. glacialis''), the North Pacific right whale (''E. japonica'') and the southern right whale (''E. australis''). They are class ...

, St. Lawrence beluga,

Harbour porpoise The harbour porpoise (''Phocoena phocoena'') is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar ...

Fin whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as the finback whale or common rorqual, is a species of baleen whale and the second-longest cetacean after the blue whale. The biggest individual reportedly measured in length, wi ...

Harbour seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinnipeds, pinniped (walruses ...

Humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

Minke whale The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish na ...

, Atlantic white-side dolphin,

Sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

Grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or "earless seals". The only species classified in the genus ''Halichoerus'', it is found on both shores of the Nort ...

Harp seal The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as the saddleback seal or Greenland seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus '' Phoca'' with a ...

Birds

Many species of birds can be observed in the Côte-Nord region and the Mingan RCM, including

and in Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve *

Warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers T ...

Tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...

Osprey The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It ...

Passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

Razorbill The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is a North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus ''Alca (bird), Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinus impennis' ...

s, many

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s * Haliaeetus leucocephalus. -Bald Eagle. -Pygargue à tête blanche *

Somateria mollissima The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breed ...

. -Common Eider. -Eider à duvet *

Fratercula arctica The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin being found in the northeast ...

. Macareux moine. -Atlantic Puffin * Bucephala islandica. -Barrow's Goldeneye. -Garrot d'Islande

References

External links

Frère Marie-Victorin Brother (Christian), Brother Marie-Victorin, Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, F.S.C. (; April 3, 1885 – July 15, 1944), was a Canadians, Canadian member of Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Brothers of ...

(1885-1944)
Anticosti, land with immense spaces, the sea all around, and a social world of the 1920s gone forever.
Anticosti/UdeM archives, 14 photos (French)
Regional County Municipality of Minganie
official website, (French)
Reception and interpretation center Parks Canada

, Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Aguanish, Baie-Johan-Beetz
Portrait Minganie RCM, zoom on the population
RAP Côte-Nord, member of the Quebec Network for Educational Success (RQRÉ), April 2019, 4p. {{Authority control States and territories established in 1982