The Miramichi River is a Canadian river located in the east-central part of the Province of New Brunswick. The river flows through the Miramichi Valley whose territory roughly corresponds to Northumberland County, but also includes sections of Victoria County, Carleton County, and York County and smaller parts of Gloucester County and Sunbury County. The Miramichi Valley is generally considered to include the lands that drain into Miramichi Bay as well.
Geography and geology
Rising in the Silurian and Ordovician rocks of the northern uplands of New Brunswick, the Miramichi flows eastward for 217 km to its broad estuary, emptying into Miramichi Bay , a part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The northeastern part of the valley was once the site of a range of high mountains, the Appalachians, now greatly eroded. The highest peak in the Miramichi drainage area, Big Bald Mountain , reaches only 2,205 feet.
The country the Miramichi drains is heavily forested, with settlements tending to cluster along the rivers. There is some farming, particularly dairy, but in general the rather sterile and acidic soils and the climate have not favoured agriculture. People in rural areas often maintain small gardens for their own use. A portion of the cleared land has reverted to forest.
Toward the south and east, the land is somewhat low lying, having once been submerged. The newer rocks of this area belong to the Carboniferous era and underlay the sandy topsoil. Sandstone rocks are seen along the river banks. Some of the coastal land is low lying and suffers from poor drainage.
Climate and forests
Westerly winds from the interior predominate, but coastal areas experience refreshing easterly breezes off the sea in late summer afternoons.
The cold air of the northern interior of North America frequently flows over the Miramichi Valley, but the close proximity of the Gulf of St. Lawrence modifies an otherwise continental climate. Snowfall is often heavy in winter, most years far exceeding the cover in the Prairie Provinces. A characteristic of the region, particularly closer to the bay, is a later spring than corresponding areas further inland, due to the frozen sea, and a similarly later fall, the adjacent water retaining its heat longer. The long warm autumns are especially pleasant.
Traditionally the Miramichi River froze solid for three to four months each winter, and as late as the 1950s, before a bridge was built, cars would regularly cross the river on the ice at Chatham and the small trucks of fish buyers would venture a long way down river on the ice to purchase smelts directly from the fishermen at their nets.
The average rainfall is in the order of 40 to 45 inches (1 to 1.1 m) per year. This proves sufficient to sustain widespread forests. The coniferous black spruce and Red Spruce are especially common, with balsam fir, white spruce, eastern white pine, red pine, jack pine and tamarack also important. Found locally are the eastern hemlock and the eastern white cedar (eastern arborvitae). Deciduous trees are also found, especially the yellow birch, the white birch, the red maple, sugar maple, trembling aspen, largetooth aspen, speckled alder, red oak, American elm, American beech and black ash.
It must be said that the forests have not been managed well. Most are owned by the provincial government as Crown lands, and all too often are given over to clear cutting or other ruinous forestry practices, to enhance the chances of a political party being reelected.
Fishing and farming
The river and its estuary once supported an extensive fishery, especially of salmon, shad, gaspereau and smelt. In the estuary, lobster are harvested especially off Neguac on the north coast and off Hardwicke, Baie Ste. Anne and Escuminac on the south coast. The oysters are of very high quality, but little exported. Sadly, overfishing and pollution have depleted most fish stocks. The commercial salmon fishery along the river was closed in the 1960s. Salmon and lumber formed the bulk of exports in the 18th and 19th centuries. Farming was not as important historically, being used more for subsistence. Potatoes, turnips, oats, and wheat were common crops.
Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries commonly grow wild as well as cranberries in wetter areas. These were important supplemental foods in colonial times. Fiddlehead fern greens, now a gourmet food, grow in certain areas though the locations tend to be carefully guarded secrets. The greens traditionally accompanied salmon steaks in the spring of the year.
Wildlife
In early days deer, moose, ducks, brant, and Canada geese were plentiful, with caribou migrating through the area seasonally. Plentiful stocks of deer remain, and a fair population of moose. Caribou are a long-faded memory, gone with the 8-gauge shotguns used to bring them down. Hunting of deer, partridge, ducks, and geese is still permitted, with an annual draw for moose hunting permits.
Black bear are relatively common. Other predators include red foxes, bobcats, mink, fishers, weasels and skunks. Porcupines and beaver are somewhat plentiful. Coyotes, unknown in colonial times and as late as the 1970s, have moved in, perhaps to replace the long extinct local wolves. The coyotes appear to be of a larger variety than commonly seen in western Canada and constitute a threat to domestic animals.There is debate as to the reliability of reported sightings of the Eastern Cougar, with a tentative consensus emerging that perhaps a remnant population of this elusive beast survives.
The river, tariffs, and commerce
The first European settlers arrived by sailing ship directly from the British Isles. Throughout colonial times and well into the era of Confederation seaborne trade directly with Britain was a cornerstone of the economy. An important export up until the mid 19th century was eastern white pine trunks for masts for the Royal Navy. Later exports included lumber, pulpwood, and pit props for the Welsh coal mines. The United States began to increasingly replace Britain as a destination for forest products as time went on. Salmon found a market in Boston, shipped directly out by schooner, with rum and molasses return cargoes.
The National Policy of Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservative government after Confederation in 1867 was not to the advantage of Miramichi lumbermen and fish buyers. The high tariff walls designed to protect Ontario manufacturers meant higher prices for imports and tariff barriers to exports to the United States. This perhaps accounts for the long Liberal predominance in Miramichi elections, and the prominence of lumber and fish merchants among Liberal Members of Parliament, and Senators in Ottawa and Members of the Legislative Assembly in Fredericton. Notable among these are Senators Jabez Bunting Snowball, lumber merchant and shipowner of Chatham, and Percy Burchill , lumber merchant of Nelson; Members of Parliament W.S. Loggie, fish and general merchant of Chatham, Richard Hutchinson , lumber merchant of Newcastle, and John Maloney, lumber merchant; and, Member of the Legislative Assembly and Provincial cabinet member, W. Stafford Anderson , lumber merchant of Newcastle, whose daughter, Margaret Anderson , served in the Senate.
Oceangoing steamers and motor vessels regularly visited ports along the river until recently. The decision by the federal government in the 1980s to discontinue dredging the sandbars at the entrance to Miramichi Bay has led to significant silting. Ships of a draught that regularly frequented the wharves of Chatham and Newcastle can no longer clear the mudbanks downstream.
Miramichi Bay
Miramichi Bay is an area of captivating beauty. Pleasure craft are common sights on its waters in the summer. The relaxed pace of life, friendly people, spectacular sunrises and sunsets (the river flows from west to east), seabreezes and abundant birdlife attract summer cottagers. The bay is separated from the Gulf of St. Lawrence proper by several low-lying islands. They are uninhabited and face the full force of ocean gales. Portage Island is the largest. It was cut in two by a heavy storm in the early 1950s. Harbour seals are relatively common, and characteristic birds are herring gulls, the common tern (pictars to use the old Scottish word), the great blue heron (commonly called "crane" in the Miramichi), the common loon, and cormorants (called "black shag" locally), with kingfishers, plovers, snipe and killdeer along the shore.
History
When recorded history began, the Mi'kmaq nation controlled the Miramichi area. In the wars between the British and French from 1689 to 1763, they sided with the latter, sometimes sending raiding parties into New England to attack settlements. In retaliation, British seaborne forces, idle during the siege of Louisbourg in 1756/7, entered the Miramichi, destroyed and scattered the small French settlements and attacked and burned the small Mi'kmaq village of Ste. Anne, henceforth called Burnt Church.
The Miramichi region was settled after the Seven Years' War by the Scottish, some of them demobilized veterans of the American Revolutionary War, and others directly coming from the old country, especially from northeast Scotland. They were the first permanent European settlers, the French before having been refugees from the Deportation of the Acadians, from lands further south. William Davidson (lumberman) was the first Scot, arriving in 1767. English settlers were present too, as evidenced by the Anglican Churches throughout the Valley. Acadians began to drift back into the area as early as 1769, settling the shorelands along the lower bay. A small number of United Empire Loyalists arrived, establishing themselves particularly in the upriver areas, where Squire Doak established the village of Doaktown .
Large numbers of Irish arrived, both before and after the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. Though some farmed, especially in Barnaby River , St. Margarets and Sevogle , they were drawn more to the towns and villages, perhaps because the Scotch and English had taken up the best land.
The Miramichi River valley is home to about 45,000 people, mainly of mixed Irish, Scottish, English, and French descent as well as Mi'kmaq. A recent phenomenon has been a gradual drifting upriver towards Miramichi (city) of French-speaking people from the bay communities such as Neguac, Baie Ste. Anne, Barryville and Escuminac. There has been much intermarriage between the two groups in the last 80 years and relations are generally good. Long residence together (there has been little inward migration since 1850) has produced a particular personality among the Miramichiers, friendly, but with a touch of reserve, generous, but also very independent, and with a wry sense of humour, especially deployed when someone is suspected of "putting on airs". They are passionately attached to their valley.
Another factor that united the people was the shared experience of two world wars. Casualties were especially heavy in the First World War, when just about every street in the towns had men killed or returned wounded or shell shocked. During the Second World War Miramichi soldiers went ashore on D Day in 1944 with the North Shore Regiment and went through the heavy fighting in Normandy, northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Others served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy.
The Mi'kmaq
There is a significant native population of the Mi'kmaq nation, living in three areas, two upriver (Eel Ground , and Red Bank)
and one down on the estuary at Burnt Church.
Historic sites
Notable structures include the MacDonald Farm near the mouth of the Bartibogue River , a restoration of an original Scottish settler's home (stones from Scotland) and the impressive St. Michael's Basilica, located in the former town of Chatham, New Brunswick, now part of Miramichi city.
The name, possibly one of the oldest recorded Canadian toponyms of Native American origin, may derive from the Innu word for "land of the Mi'kmaq".
Tributaries
It has two main branches, the Northwest Miramichi River and the Southwest Miramichi River, as well as many smaller tributaries, four of which are described below.
The Bartibogue River
The Bartibogue River flows into the waters of the Miramichi's estuary from the north some 7 miles below Chatham on the opposite side. It is tidal in its lower stretches. There is very little settlement along its banks, except for the hamlet of Russellville a few miles upstream, some cottages at its mouth and a sprinkling of houses some miles inland where the highway to Bathurst crosses it. There is good trout fishing on the Bartibog in places. The people settled in this area are largely descendants of Scottish Catholics and Protestants with a sprinkling of Irish. Some have intermarried with French people from further down the river.
The Little Southwest Miramichi River
The Little Southwest Miramichi River is a tributary of the Northwest Miramichi River and is somewhat thickly settled along its lower stretches. There is a Mi'kmaq settlement at Red Bank where the Little South West joins the Northwest Miramichi. The Little South West is a good salmon river and the are a number of fishing and hunting lodges along its banks. The peoples living in the area are of mixed Scottish and English origins and are largely Protestant with a good representation of evangelical Christians among them. Some commute to jobs in Miramichi (city) and others work in the woods or are involved in trucking, tourism or guiding. People in the area have a good work ethic and maintain their homes very well.
The Napan River
This small tributary empties into the south side of Miramichi Bay some nine miles (15 km) below Chatham. It is a small stream, but since it flows through a narrow, but fertile valley, farmland stretches along its banks from its mouth upriver for some 12 miles (19 km). The farms are not so well tended as in past years, but some farming still occurs. Since it flows just south of the city of Miramichi, many of the farms are used as country homes by those who work in town. The historical population was mostly English and Scottish Protestant, with a few Irish Catholic farming families upstream, especially in the rural area called Wellfield. Farmers at the mouth of Napan River in days gone by maintained set nets on Miramichi Bay, supplementing their income from woodlots and farms by selling salmon and shad in spring and summer and smelts in the winter.
Barnaby River
This is the name of both a river and a rural area. Barnaby River is a small stream that winds it way through the forests of east-central New Brunswick, before emptying into the Southwest Miramichi River just above the City of Miramichi. It flows in from the south and parallels the direction of the main river for part of its course. It was here that the rural Irish settlement of Barnaby River spread along its banks for some distance. People earned a meagre living through farming, working outside the community and cutting pulpwood from their woodlots. Most farms in the Miramichi were from 80 to 120 acres (323,000 to 486,000 m²) in size, with the more prosperous ones often those downriver with rights to catch salmon in setnets. The Barnaby was too small to support such a fishery. However the people were thrifty and were very successful in launching their many children into the world. The community historically centred upon a Catholic church, the Church of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, with a resident pastor. The resident pastor is, alas no more. Population has significantly declined over the past 50 years.
See also
