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Port-Cartier, Quebec (Canada)

Côte-Nord

Last modified: 2021-01-09 by rob raeside
Keywords: port-cartier | quebec |
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[Port-Cartier] image by Masao Okazaki, 23 December 2020

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Flag

A photo of this flag was posted in September 2019 by Luc Vartan Baronian in the FOTW Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/flagsoftheworld/permalink/3858336647514362

The arms are explained on this page, which also suggested to me the likely typeface used for the flag: http://www.villeport-cartier.com/

The large arms was available at the city's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ville.portcartier/photos/a.569058243147416/618143601572213

Masao Okazaki, 23 December 2020

The new town of Port-Cartier (6,799 inhabitants in 2016; 135,370 ha) is located on the northern shore of the Saint-Lawrence, 60 km south-west of Sept-Îles and 170 km north-east of Baie-Comeau.

The new town was established on 19 February 2003, as the merger of the town of Port-Cartier and of the municipality of Rivière-Pentecôte.

The place was originally known as Portage-des-Mousses, in Innu Massek Kupitaken, because of rapids on Rivière-aux-Rochers (Rock's River, a name coined in 1603 by Samuel Champlain) that required portage of canoes on a distance of 3 km.
In 1915, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, owner of the "Chicago Tribune", visited the place to assess its industrial potential. A sawmill was built in 1918; the Ontario Paper Company established in 1920 a barking factory west of the river, in a place called Shelter Bay for the post office inaugurated in 1916. Timber industry stopped in 1955.

The town of Port-Cartier was incorporated in 1959 upon request of the Quebec Cartier Mining Company, which exploited iron mines 300 km northwards, near lake Jeannette. The company built a deep-water port, connected to the mines by a railway.
Port-Cartier became soon the 3rd port in Quebec by its tonnage. In the next two decades, the company invested more then one billion dollars, which yielded the nickname of Billion Town to Port-Cartier.
The Port-Cartier-Sept-Île fauna reserve (6,422 sq. km) was established in 1965 in the basins of Rivière-Pentecôte and Rivière-aux-Rochers.

The municipality of Rivière-Pentecôte was incorporated on 1972 on the hitherto non-incorporated territory on which the Saint-Patrice-de-la-Rivière-Pentecôte mission was founded in 1875. The name of Pentecôte (Whit) was coined in 1535 by Jacques Cartier, who visited the place on Whit Sunday. The river was known in Innu as Mistecaplu, meaning "an abrupt rock". A document issued in 1685 by Louis Jolliet mentions the river "named la pannecoste", while Deshayes' map (1695) features "Rivière de la Pentecoste". In 1744, the cartographer Bellin listed "Rivière Michiagabou or Rivière de la Pentecôte, aka rivière Sainte-Marguerite".
The post office of Penticost River, established in 1884, was renamed Rivière-Pentecôte in 1933. At the end of the 19th century, the place was among the most important industrial centers of the northern shore of the Saint-Lawrence. The first newspaper in the region, "L'Écho du Labrador", was published in 1903 in Rivière-Pentecôte by the Eudist father Joseph Laizé.

http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/ToposWeb/fiche.aspx?no_seq=50727
Commission de toponymie du Québec

The Quebec Cartier Mining Company, subsequently renamed to Compagnie minière Québec Cartier, was established in 1957 by the United States Steel Corp. The company established from scratch the town of Gagnon close to the mines; opencast extraction of iron ore started in 1961. The Lake Jeannine being deemed to exhaustion in 1976, the company relocated its activity 120 km northwards near Mount Wright, establishing a new town, Fermont. Gagnon was eventually closed in 1984. The company was sold in 1998 to different shareholders, to be eventually acquired in 2006 by ArcelorMital and renamed to ArcelorMittal Mines Canada.

https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&;id=26739&type=pge
Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec

The black and white ship represents the ships that transport iron ore from one side of the ocean to the other.
The conifer is a symbol of the immense forests.
The blue waves represents the river, its ports and the resources provided by the sea.

The Latin motto, "Ad portum feliciter", means "Safe and sound" - French, "à bon port", lit. "to a good port".

http://www.villeport-cartier.com/fr/
Town website
Ivan Sache, 23 December 2020