Bas-Saint-Laurent: History
=== Prehistory and proto-history ===
The first inhabitants of the area that is now known as Bas-Saint-Laurent lived on the shore of the estuary soon after the glaciers melted Archeological excavations between 1980 and 1990 around Bic and Rimouski indicate an amerindian presence during the Paleoindian, between 9,000 and 8,000 BP years, according to Pierre Dumais and Gilles Rousseau. and between 10,000 and 8,000 BP years according to Claude Chapdelaine.
Paleoindian sites discovered on an ancient beach 80 m (260 ft) above and a sea shelf contained stone tools and lithic flakes, indicating an industry belonging to the Plano culture. These nomads inhabited the region and practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
A second period, the Archaic covers about 5,000 years and starts at around 7,000 BP to end 2,500 years ago in the south of Quebec. In 1977, researchers listed 19 sites in the region; six near the estuary and thirteen inland. The Archaic Period is characterised by nomad populations using various methods to use more efficiently the resources of the land. The sites are often located near small lakes or along rivers like the Touladi River in the Témiscouata. The artifacts discovered seem to indicate these groups preferred hunting rather than fishing.
Four sites are located in the Bic National Park. The most ancient, dated at around 4,000 years old, is located on the east shore of the Orignal's Cape. It is an old abandoned marine shelf abandoned 1,000 years ago by the Sea of Goldthwait. Aside from tools and lithic flakes, archeologists also found broken and heated stones, sign that the inhabitants created hearths with which they cooked food and maybe smoked the meat.
Just like the Normands and the Bretons, Basque fishermen started exploiting the marine ressources of the estuary and gulf of the Saint Lawrence in the 16th century. Their presence is confirmed as early as the 1520s and becomes more frequent right after the expeditions of Jacques Cartier.
Around 1560, the Basque own a fleet of a hundred cod-fishers and thirty whalers. They first exploit the abundant ressources present in the estuary and the banks of Newfoundland, but around 1570, it seems the reduced numbers of whale colonies push them to search for them all the way to the medium estuary of the Saint Lawrence.
The hunt is mainly located at the level of the chasse Saguenay fjord. L'île aux Basques, located in front of Trois-Pistoles, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, it becomes a privileged place for the Basque to skin the whales captured in the area and melt their fat. Three furnaces still stand to remind us of this activity. …