Miramichi ( ) is the largest city in northern New Brunswick, Canada. It is situated at the mouth of the Miramichi River where it enters Miramichi Bay. The Miramichi Valley is the second longest valley in New Brunswick, after the Saint John River Valley.
On 1 January 2023, Miramichi annexed parts of two local service districts on its northern border; revised census information has not been released.
Neighbourhoods
The city of Miramichi was formed in 1995 through the forced amalgamation of two towns, Newcastle and Chatham, and several smaller communities, including Douglastown, Loggieville, and Nelson. Also the local service districts of Nordin, Moorefield, Chatham Head, and Douglasfield. The amalgamation also included portions of the former local service district of Ferry Road-Russellville (the remnant later renamed Lower Newcastle-Russellville), Chatham Parish, Glenelg Parish and Nelson Parish.
History
Mi'kmaq and French communities (before 1765) Long prior to European settlement, the Miramichi region was home to members of the Mi'kmaq first nation. For the Mi'kmaq, Beaubears Island, at the junction of the Northwest and Main Southwest branches of the Miramichi River was a natural meeting point.
Following the European discovery of the Americas, the Miramichi became part of the French colony of Acadia. About 1648, Nicolas Denys, Sieur de Fronsac, established a fort and trading post, Fort Fronsac, on the Miramichi. This establishment was apparently constructed "on the North side of the Miramichi, at the forks of the river". According to W.F.Ganong, a Recollet Mission was established in 1686 on the Miramichi "in Nelson", "probably near Beaubear's Island".
Nicolas Denys' son, Richard Denys, was placed in charge of the fort and trading post, and in 1688 Richard states, "Miramichi is the principal place of my residence", and describes his establishment as including about a dozen French and more than 500 indigenous inhabitants. In 1691 Richard died at sea; the post declined.
The following account from the Dictionary of Miramichi Biography describes in greater detail the extent of the Denys' Miramichi base:"The domain of Nicholas Denys, governor of Acadia, extended along the southerly side of the Gulf of St Lawrence, from Miscou Island to Cape Breton. It may have included a trading post at Miramichi in the 1640s, but the first extensive French establishment on the river was that of Denys's son Richard Denys. He began to cultivate land along the Miramichi in 1684. In 1688 he had a fort with gun emplacements, a house built of freestone, and a storehouse. There were three French families at the fort, and he had men employed catching fish. Nearby there were approximately eighty Micmac wigwams."The site of Denys's establishment, which is considered to have been on the north side of the Miramichi opposite the Point - that is, near the former pulp mill site in Newcastle - was abandoned by 1691. In August of that year, when he was thirty-seven years old, Denys set sail for Quebec in the ship Saint-François-Xavier, which was never heard of again. His estate passed to his widow in 1694 and was still owned by members of the family in Quebec in the 1750s."By about 1740 French villages were well established on Miramichi Bay at Bay du Vin and Neguac. In the current city of Miramichi, a larger village existed at Canadian Point, and a town comprising 200 houses, a chapel, and provision stores occupied "Beaubear's Point". The French maintained batteries of guns at the east end of Beaubears Island and at French Fort Cove.
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War erupted in 1754. During the war many Acadian homes were destroyed by the British, and their residents were deported (see the Expulsion of the Acadians).
In 1757 the French general, Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot attempted to evade British troops in the Saint John River Valley and the Bay of Fundy, by leading 900 French refugees up the northeast coast of New Brunswick to Miramichi, establishing a camp, "Camp de l’Espérance", on Beaubears Island. After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), Boishebert led a group of Acadians from St. Peter's, Nova Scotia to Miramichi. Over 200 of the refugees died at the camp.