Pointe-au-Père
| Pointe-au-Père | |||
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 Pointe-au-Père lighthouse |
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| Location in Quebec | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | Quebec | ||
| Administrative region : | Bas-Saint-Laurent | ||
| MRC or equivalent : | Rimouski-Neigette | ||
| Coordinates : | 48 ° 31 ′ N , 68 ° 28 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern Time ( UTC − 5 ) | ||
Pointe-au-Père is a former municipality in the province of Québec , Canada , which has been incorporated into the city of Rimouski since 2002 . When it merged in 2002, the community had 4,240 inhabitants.
Pointe-au-Père is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence - estuary 280 km northeast of the city Quebec City and 8 km northeast of the center of Rimouski. In front of the site is a flat ledge on which the Pointe-au-Père lighthouse has stood since 1859 .
The name Pointe-au-Père (dt. Tip of the father) goes back to the first mass on the south bank of the St. Lawrence estuary, which was celebrated on December 8, 1663 by the Jesuit priest Henri Nouvel. Pointe-au-Père has been a place of pilgrimage since 1873. In 1882 the parish and the municipality ( municipalité de paroisse ) with the name Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pointe-au-Père was officially established. In 1988 the municipality name was shortened to Pointe-au-Père. In earlier times the place was called Father's Point or Father Point in English .
From 1863 to 1959 Pointe-au-Père was the pilot station for navigation in the Saint Lawrence estuary between Rimouski and Québec. In 1902 the first pier was built. The port facility was later enlarged and provided with a rail connection and cisterns with petroleum products. At the time of the Atlantic steamers, there was a special mail train from Montréal to Pointe-au-Père, where the first / last mail items were brought onto the ship. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the navigation route was moved to the north side of the estuary and the pilot station was relocated to Les Escoumins in 1960 . The port facilities were later taken out of service.
On May 29, 1914, the Empress of Ireland sank near Pointe-au-Père. 1012 of the 1477 people on board were killed. Today the Musée de la mer (Museum of the Sea) commemorates this shipwreck.
Since 1897 there was a gauge in Pointe-au-Père , which was moved in 1983 to the neighboring port of Rimouski. The Pointe-au-Père gauge has served as the reference point for the Great Lakes International Date since 1955 , and as the reference point for the North American Vertical Date of 1988.
swell
- Commission de toponymie du Québec: Noms et lieux du Québec: dictionnaire illustré . Les Publications du Québec, Québec 2006, ISBN 2-551-19669-8 .