![[Port-Cartier]](../images/c/ca-qcpcr.gif)
Last modified: 2021-01-09 by rob raeside
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by Masao Okazaki, 23 December 2020See also:
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
