![[Sorel-Tracy flag]](../images/c/ca-qcsot.gif)
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Eugene IpavecThe municipality of Sorel-Tracy (40,964 inhabitants in 2015; 6,670 ha) is
located on the confluence of rivers Saint-Laurent and Richelieu. The
municipality was established on 15 March 2000 as the merger of the former
municipalities of Sorel (including Saint-Pierre-de-Sorel since 1992) and Tracy,
validated by a referendum.
The region of Sorel was visited by the early
colonists of Nouvelle-France, Jacques Cartier (1535) and Samuel de Champlain
(1603). Charles Huault de Montmagny, Governor of Nouvelle-France, erected on 13
August 1642 the Richelieu Fort, which was ruined and abandoned five years later.
Permanent settlement of the area was initiated in 1665 by Louis XIV. Alexandre
de Prouville, Marquis of Tracy and owner of the Regiment of Carignan-Salières,
was appointed Lieutenant General of French America, that is, head of the
government of Nouvelle-France, from 1665 to 1668. He led two pacification
campaigns against the Iroquois, erected two forts on river Richelieu (Chambly
and Sainte-Thèrèse, and commissioned Captain Pierre de Saurel to rebuild the
ruined Richelieu Fort. The regiment re-embarked to France in 1668, leaving in
Nouvelle-France 400 soldiers and officers. Several decommissioned officers,
became feudal lords and organized the colonization in the name of the King of
France. Pierre de Saurel was officially granted in 1672 the domain he had been
organizing for seven years. He settled 33 of his former soldiers and erected a
mill and a chapel within the fort enclosure. Saurel was contracted in 1671 as
the official supplier of oak and pine wood for the Royal shipyard in Quebec,.
Lacking funds, Saurel became a fur trader; after his sudden death in Montreal in
1682, his widow, Catherine Legardeur, would keep the domain for the next 31
years. She eventually sold the domain to Claude de Ramezay, Governor of
Montreal.
The parish of Saint-Pierre-de-Saurel was established on 21
September 1721. According to the 1724 census, the parish counted 53 landlords
and c. 300 inhabitants. Shipbuilding, first mentioned on 30 September 1730, was
favoured by the wood resources and the natural harbour of the Richelieu estuary;
in 1795, the traveller Isaac Weld stated that the main source of income in the
village was shipbuilding. The first manufacture in the area, producing tar, was
established in 1740. Ten years later, Saint-Pierre-de-Saurel counted c. 800
inhabitants.
The lord of Saurel and commander of Quebec, Jean-Baptiste-Claude-Roch
de Ramezay, surrendered Quebec to the English on 18 September 1759. In summer
1760, the inhabitants of Saurel attempted to stop the English troops marching to
Montréal, to no avail; Montréal was seized on 8 September 1760.
In 1763,
the Ramezay family sold the domain of Sorel to John Bondfield, an English
burgher of Quebec. Seventeen years later, the Governor of the Province of
Quebec, Sir Frederick Haldimand, purchased Sorel on behalf of the Crown to
establish Anglo-American Loyalists. German mercenaries in the service of the
Crown, mostly from the Duchy of Brunswick, also settled in Sorel; their chief,
Major General Friedrich Adolphus von Riedesel lived with his family in the
Governors" House from 1781 to 1783. The newcomers founded in July 1784 an
Anglican church, the second ever built in Canada. Governor Haldimand
commissioned in 1786 Major French, a civil engineer, and Samuel Holland to
re-design the town according to a grid plan ; this was the first urbanism plan
implemented in Canada. Impressed by the design during an official visit, Prince
William Henry (later, King William IV) "offered" his name to the town, which
would be known under the dual name Sorel / William Henry for the next 73 years.
In the 19th century, shipbuilding superseded fur trade as the main source of
income in Sorel. H. Jollief owned in 1810 a shipyard located on the left bank of
river Richelieu. The shipyard of the St. Lawrence Steamboat Co. was transferred
nearby in 1830. The Irish McCarthy brothers founded in 1839 another shipyard,
transformed 30 years later in the Federal Government's shipyard. This industry
peaked in 1937 with the establishment of Marine Industries Ltd.; together with
the Sorel Industries Ltd. steelworks, the shipyard employed up to 10,000 workers
during the Second World War, producing warships and ammunition. The population
of Sorel doubled between 1941 and 1951.
On 20 February 1954, the Parish
Municipality of Saint-Joseph-de-Sorel was erected a Town. The name of Tracy, a
tribute to the Marquis de Tracy, was proposed by a citizen in a public contest.
The proposed names should not end with "ville" and not include the name of a
saint, either.
http://www.ville.sorel-tracy.qc.ca/ - Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 25 March 2017
Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.
The flag of the City of Sorel-Tracy has a white field with the city
logo centred horizontally, about two-thirds the height of the flag. The logo
is square, with a wide stylized “S” in white running from the left side of
the upper edge to right side of the lower edge; the background to the left is
green and to the right is blue. Below, running half the length of the flag, is
SOREL-TRACY in blue sans-serif letters.
Luc Baronian, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
The logo represents a transformation of a capital S in bold Times font, cut at its extremities sans serif. This stylized S, the initial of Sorel-Tracy, represents somewhat the sinuous line of the Richelieu River that crosses the new city and its two components.
Luc Baronian, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011
The flag was created after the merger of the cities
of Sorel and Tracy in 2000. The logo is derived from the former logo of
Sorel, which was designed in February 1994 by Jean-Guy Rajotte, then a
professor at Fernand-Lefebvre High School and a member of the Société
des graphistes du Québec. That Sorel logo was identical to the current
logo, except in just blue and white. The blue/green colour combination
was taken from the former logo of Tracy.
Luc Baronian, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
Unknown.
Luc Baronian, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
Photos:
http://www.sorel-tracyexpress.ca/actualites/actualites/150504/le-drapeau-arc-en-ciel-flotte-devant-lhotel-de-ville
http://www.soreltracy.com/2008/mai/2m1.html
http://www.cjso.ca/la-ville-de-sorel-tracy-a-mis-ses-drapeaux-en-berne/
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKPJN_Le_drapeau_de_Sorel_Tracy_Qubec_Canada
http://www.soreltracy.com/2013/nov/12n2.html
http://www.cjso.ca/seance-ordinaire-du-conseil-de-ville-de-sorel-tracy/
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/201409/21/01-4802149-sorel-tracy-les-marins-turcs-rentrent-chez-eux.php
http://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=202200&type=bien
https://lussierdaleparizeau.ca/a-propos/nouvelles/375e-sorel-tracy/
The logo of Sorel-Tracy was derived from the logo of the former
municipality of Tracy, designed in February 1994 by Jean-Guy Rajotte, then
teacher at the Fernand-Lefebvre secondary school and registered member of the
Société des graphistes du Québec. The logo is made of a capital letter "S", in
Times bold font, with the ends and serifs removed. The stylised "S", for
"Sorel-Tracy", represents the sinuous course of river Richelieu, which crosses
the new town and separates its two components.
http://www.ville.sorel-tracy.qc.ca/regard-sur-la-ville/logo.html -
Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 25 March 2017
