Canada’s first colony open to public

It doesn’t look like much anymore, but the the remains of the first colony in Canada and the United States is in Cap Rouge, 20 kilometres west of Old Quebec.

Sixty-five years before Quebec City was founded, two French explorers attempted to make this piece of land home.

“It’s the first time the French tried to colonize in North America,” said archaeologist Charles Corriveau.

It didn’t go so well. The area was already inhabited by First Nations and the confrontation with the settlers led to the death of some of Jacques Cartier’s men. Cartier packed up and set sail back to France, but he crossed paths with Roberval who convinced him to come back and rebuild.

Today, visitors can see the colony for themselves.

“They walk in the same place where Cartier and Roberval walked in 1541 – 1543, so it’s very special to know that this is the place where the New France begins,” said Corriveau.

The colony, now a protected archaeological site, was discovered in 2005. Corriveau is one of the archaeologists who dug out over 6,000 artifacts.

“When we do an excavation, it’s like an investigation to understand because… the history is very short. We have very few documents.”

The artifacts Corriveau helped unearth are now on display in the Musee de l’Amerique Francophone. They help tell the story of early settlers, but the archaeologist’s work is hardly done.

In the end, Cartier and Roberval’s colony didn’t survive, Corriveau explains, it was leveled by fire. What he wants to know now is whether or not that fire was an accident.