Port au Choix or Port aux Choix (; from misanalyzed to mean 'choice port', from , meaning 'little port') is a town in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the 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%, which is sli ...

conducted by

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 ...

, Port au Choix 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.

National Historic Site

Port au Choix is a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

, and the community is regarded as one of the richest archeological finds in North America. Burial sites uncovered in the town in the 1960s & 70s provide evidence of its earliest settlers - from the Maritime Archaic Indians to the Groswater and

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

Palaeo-Eskimos to the Recent Indians (ancestors of the Beothuks). While prehistoric coastlines elsewhere have long since slipped beneath the encroaching ocean, the raised shoreline and alkaline soil conditions at Port au Choix have combined to preserve a time capsule of great historical importance. Because of the cultural significance of this burial site, and a successful local lobby, the site was officially designated a National Historic Site in 1970. In 2001,

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

constructed a new Visitor Centre and Museum dedicated to the rich history of the native peoples - the first ever to inhabit Newfoundland, dating back over 5000 years.

Basque ''chaloupe''

In 2004, through the effort of the 2004 Society, an association of Basque Maritime Heritage, Itsas Begia (''The eye of the sea'') from

Ciboure Ciboure (; ,ZIBURU

(

Northern Basque Country The French Basque Country (; ; ), or Northern Basque Country (, or , ), is a region lying on the west of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Since 1 January 2017, it constitutes the Basque Municipal Community (; ) presided o ...

), came to Newfoundland and shared its ancestral knowledge with Newfoundlanders. Three ''chaloupes'' were built, here in Port au Choix, in

Conche file:Conchiermaschine.ogg, upright=1.35, Conche (in the Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum) Conching is a process used in the manufacture of chocolate whereby a surface scraping mixer and agitator, known as a conche, evenly distributes cocoa butter within ...

and in La Scie. The ''chaloupe'' is located on Forest Road, in the old Port au Choix

cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

References

External links

Basque Maritime Heritage, Itsas BegiaPort au Choix - Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 4, pp. 382–384.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Port Au Choix Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador