Tadoussac | |
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Village municipality | |
Location within La Haute-Côte-Nord RCM. |
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Location in Côte-Nord region of Quebec. | |
Coordinates: 48°09′N 69°43′W / 48.150°N 69.717°WCoordinates: 48°09′N 69°43′W / 48.150°N 69.717°W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Quebec |
Region | Côte-Nord |
RCM | La Haute-Côte-Nord |
Settled | 1600 |
Constituted | October 10, 1899 |
Government | |
• Mayor | Hugues Tremblay |
• Federal riding | Montmorency—Charlevoix —Haute-Côte-Nord |
• Prov. riding | René-Lévesque |
Area | |
• Total | 194.10 km2 (74.94 sq mi) |
• Land | 53.98 km2 (20.84 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 813 |
• Density | 15.1/km2 (39/sq mi) |
• Pop 2006-2011 | 4.4% |
• Dwellings | 400 |
Time zone | EST (UTC−5) |
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC−4) |
Postal code(s) | G0T 2A0 |
Area code(s) | 418 and 581 |
Highways |
Route 138 Route 172 |
Website | www |
Tadoussac (French pronunciation: [tadusak]) is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu called the place Totouskak (plural for totouswk or totochak) meaning "bosom", probably in reference to the two round and sandy hills located on the west side of the village. According to other interpretations, it could also mean "place of lobsters", or "place where the ice is broken" (from the Innu shashuko). Although located in Innu territory, the post was also frequented by the Mi'kmaq people in the second half of the 16th century, who called it Gtatosag ("among the rocks"). Alternate spellings of Tadoussac over the centuries included Tadousac (17th and 18th centuries), Tadoussak, and Thadoyzeau (1550). Tadoussac was first visited by Europeans in 1535 and was established in 1600 when the first trading post in Canada was formed there, in addition to a permanent settlement being placed in the same area that the Grand Hotel is located today.
Jacques Cartier came to the site in 1535 during his second voyage. He found Innu people using it as a base for hunting seal. Later that same century, Basques from Spain conducted whaling expeditions on the river.
Tadoussac was founded in 1600 by François Gravé Du Pont, a merchant, and Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit, a captain of the French Royal Navy, when they acquired a fur trade monopoly from King Henry IV. Gravé and Chauvin built the settlement on the shore at the mouth of the Saguenay River, at its confluence with the St. Lawrence, to profit from its location. But the frontier was harsh and only five of the 16 men with them survived the first winter. In 1603, the tabagie or "feast" of Tadoussac reunited Gravé with Samuel de Champlain and with the Montagnais, the Algonquins, and the Etchimins." In 1615, the Mission of L'Exaltation-de-la-Sainte-Croix-de-Tadoussac, named in memory of a cross planted by Jean de Quen, was founded by the Récollet Order. Their missionary brothers sang the first Mass there two years later.