In Their Own Voice:

Stories and Songs from St. Paul's River, Québec

The

Seasonal

Migration

George Nother had his dogs up in the nose [of the boat] and his stove in the flat [a small boat that he was towing]. It was a little bit wavy; there's always an undertow coming in there at Stick Point. He turned the point, and the flat tipped over. He lost his stove. It wasn't funny, but I laugh at what he said: "Stick Point will never freeze over this winter. The devil will have a fire in that stove all winter." That's a true story. He told me that himself.

Roger Roberts, St. Paul's River

Travelling towards Grand Isle (Photo: Niels Jensen)
George Nother's one-time summer house, Stick Point (Photo: Niels Jensen)

In the nineteenth century, liveyeres—permanent white residents—on the Lower North Shore often maintained two homes. One was a summer house, located on a headland or an island, where inhabitants could row or sail to nearby fishing grounds. The other was a winter house, usually located on the mainland at the far end of a bay or at the mouth of a river. There, occupants were better protected from harsh coastal winds and could more easily secure fresh water, wood for cooking and heating, small and big game for sustenance, and fur-bearing animals for the fur trade.

Families or individuals moved to their summer quarters in May or June and returned to their winter quarters in September or October. Anthropologists refer to this tradition of seasonal migration as "transhumance."

In an 1858 report about St. Paul's River, Congregationalist minister Charles C. Carpenter described both summer and winter houses as "huts or tilts … small and rude, being built of timber sawn by hand and generally thatched with turf and the bark of trees."

In The Labrador Mission (1878), Samuel R. Butler, a later Congregationalist missionary in the vicinity of St. Paul's River, noted: "Some, however, have frame houses, … [which] are roomy and comfortable."

Israel and Susan Griffin outside their home at Five Leagues, about twenty kilometres east of St. Paul's River, circa 1909
(PA187172 Library and Archives Canada)

Eventually, marine engines and then outboard motors made it easier to travel to fish nets from the mainland. But residents of St. Paul's River continued to move to their summer houses every spring. The practice faded in the late 1970s when longliners, furnished with living quarters below deck, were introduced. Skippers and their crew could fish from the mainland or leave home for days, even weeks, at a time. They could carry all sorts of fishing gear—gill nets, trawls, lobster pots, or crab pots—and travel to wherever the fishing was best.

A few fishermen, such as Jack Roberts of St. Paul's River, continued to rely on an open boat and a cod trap into the early 1980s. He and his wife, Victoria, also continued to move farther out on the mainland to a site in Stick Point Bay in mid-May. In an interview with Louise Abbott in 1983, Jack explained: "You're right here, just waiting, getting ready, thinking about the fish and everything that's going to come."

Jack Robert's old summer house at Stick Point Bay, 2022 (Photo: Louise Abbott)

Even after the fishing season ended, Jack and Victoria stayed on. "When you can't fish, you mend the nets and that," Jack said. "You always got something to do, you know." When they finally closed their summer place in September, Jack returned to St. Paul's River with reluctance. "I'd sooner be out here. The air's different from what it is in the river. It's not so stuffy—there's always a cool breeze. When I comes out here, I sleeps better, and I gets a better appetite."

Jack Roberts, Stick Point Bay, 1983 (Photo: Louise Abbott)

Today, the annual seasonal migration is only a memory for older residents of St. Paul's River. But residents and former residents of all ages enjoy going out to traditional sites on headlands or islands for weekends or holidays. They've renovated old summer homes or replaced them with modern cottages.

The Seasonal Migration / La transhumance

Principal Videography / Vidéographie principale - Louise Abbott

Aerial Videography / Vidéographie aérienne - Niels Jensen

Picture and Sound Editing / Montage cinématographique et de la bande sonore - Louise Abbott

Online Edit and Sound Mix / Montage définitif et mixage du son - Vito DeFilippo

Music / Musique - "Water Horse" Firefly Music

Archival Photos / Photos historiques - Louise Abbott

Library and Archives Canada PA196627

Contemporary summer house, Pointe des Peaux, Grand Isle (Photo: Louise Abbott)
Contemporary summer house, Grand Isle (Photo: Louise Abbott)

I remember what we call "moving out" in the spring of the year. We would carry everything. The stove had to go. Chairs. Dog team, too, because in the early years, we had a dog team. I remember the motorboat shaking and jiggling all the way out. It was just amazing.

Chesley Griffin, St. Paul's River