Saint-Jacques, Quebec

Saint-Jacques is a 26 mi² (67.34 km²) rural municipality in the Lanaudière region of Québec, Canada, part of the Montcalm Regional County Municipality with a population of 4,300 year-round residents. The municipality is notable for its natural beauty and horticulture, and its storied history: Officially founded in 1774 by thirty Acadian families who managed to escape by boat to Québec after forced expulsion, Saint-Jacques is part of the region known as the "Acadian cradle of Lanaudière."

"The Great Upheaval" ( Fr. "le Grand Dérangement") began in the fall of 1755 and lasted until 1778. "The first removals ... [of] approximately 7,000 people were from settlements around the Bay of Fundy" in present-day Nova Scotia. The majority were expelled by ship to the "continental colonies or France," but 225 fled south to Québec. They would go on to found a handful of new Acadian villages, or “Little Cadies,” including Saint-Jacques, which is why the Saint-Jacques coat of arms uses the same colors as the Acadian flag.

History
Originally called Saint-Jacques-de-la-Nouvelle-Acadie to commemorate the Acadians' second pioneering effort, the municipality provided the settlers key resources for living off the land. The site provided ready access to "hardwood ... with which [to] build homes, barns, poultry houses, hog barns, sheep pens.... ploughs, tables, chairs, or tool handles ... and "soft wood" — the white pine especially — [for] cabinets, hutches, bowls and shoes." Although the first houses, built in 1768, were wood, by the beginning of the 1800s, they were being built of stone, which was also plentiful. An oft-repeated adage explained such abundance this way: "Our fathers lost Acadia; In return, [we] found the richest lands of Lower Canada.... In [our] veins flow[s] the purest French blood."

In 1772, the villagers hired a priest and, in 1775, they built their first church. Nine years later, they began cultivating tobacco, which became so essential it is pictured on one of the four quadrants of the municipality's coat of arms. Other agricultural crops followed: corn, grain, as well as dairy farms in the swine industry, vegetable farming, the farming of mink, and maple trees, eventually leading to the development of off-season industries and factories. For all of its success, the municipality remained quiet. In 1895, Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places summed it up this way: "SAINT JACQUES DE L’ACHIGAN, a post-village of Québec, co. of Montcalm, 13 miles N.N.W. of L'Assomption. It has a church, a convent, a brewery, &c. Pop. 800."More than 100 years later, the church and convent are tourist attractions, the municipality's name is shorter and its crops draw tourists seeking lush gardens, fruitful orchards, organic farms, sustainable pork and an annual gourmet food festival, known as "Les Fêtes gourmandes de Lanaudière." Between 2016–18, the municipality's Parc des Cultures was recognized with four out of five "Jewels of Québec" ( Fr : Fleurons du Québec) in recognition of its beautiful horticulture and landscape.

Literature

 * Acadian writer Antonine Maillet won the Prix Goncourt, France's greatest literary award, for her 1979 novel Pélagie-la-Charrette about an Acadian group deported to the American South in 1755 who made a pilgrimage back to Grand Pré (Nova Scotia) in the 1770s.
 * American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie commemorating the Expulsion of the Acadians, and considered by some to be the first important long poem in American literature was first published in 1847.
 * Saint-Jacques-born poet and writer Marcel Dugas (1883–1943) was a leading figure in the Québécois Avant-Garde.

Attractions

 * Known for its snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and hiking, Saint-Jacques is also a destination for fresh organic food enthusiasts and nature lovers who seek to stroll in picturesque lavender fields.
 * In addition to the Parc des Cultures, which uses arts, horticulture and ornament to memorialize the municipality's history, it also hosts the hiker-friendly Parc de la Coulée.
 * The Maison de la Nouvelle-Acadie (Home of the New Acadia) is a small museum that traces the eight-part story of the Acadian arrival in Canada from 1604 to the foundation of Saint-Jacques in 1774.
 * A mobile application is available for self-guided tours of the municipality's main sites, which includes several structures listed on both the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec and the Canadian Register of Historic Places:

Gallery
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