Henri Menier - Anticosti Island Development

Anticosti Island Development

In 1895, Henri Menier bought Anticosti Island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada from a British logging company. Originally granted to Louis Jolliet as a seigniory by King Louis XIV, it is a large and heavily forested island and at 217 km in length and 16–48 km wide is one-quarter the size of the country of Belgium.

Menier used it for business as well as a private game reserve, bringing in a variety of wild animals native to Canada including foxes, fishers, reindeer, bison and moose. One of the other species Menier introduced was a herd of 220 white-tailed deer who, because there were no natural predators, thrived. The island's deer population is now is estimated at well over 100,000. Along with its 24 rivers and streams bountiful with salmon and trout, it is today a paradise for paleontologists, bird watchers, hikers, and a major draw for anglers and hunters, particularly those from the United States.

Henri Menier named the 70 metre high Vauréal Falls on Anticosti Island after the town of Vauréal in France where he owned a home. At Anticosti, he hoped to set up a seigniory that could be self-supporting. He first established a settlement at Bay Sainte-Claire in 1895 but the bay proved too shallow for the large ships he would need. In 1900, he moved the settlement to Ellis Bay and established Port-Menier along the waterfront with a 1,000 meter wharf. He invested a substantial amount of money to construct a sawmill to service the logging operations that harvested softwood timber for building lumber and Wood pulp for the manufacture of paper products. The community was centered around a new cannery business designed to take advantage of the abundant supply of fish and lobsters. The town had its own hospital, school, Roman Catholic church, general store, bank, bakery, hotel, plus homes and rooming houses for the workers, and 30-room Scandinavian-style mansion for himself. Once completed, the island was home to 800 permanent residents, most of whom were French Canadians. Residents and businesses obtained supplies from a sailing ship Menier operated between Quebec City and the Gaspé, and obtained coal from the mines at Sydney, Nova Scotia.

In June 1911, Henri Menier married Hélène Thyra de Seillières who shared his love of the outdoors. However, a diabetic, he died childless a little more than a year after his marriage. He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. His brother Gaston became the owner of Anticosti Island. He used and maintained it for a time but eventually decided it was not an economically viable proposition and sold it to the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company in 1926. Many of the original houses still stand today.

Rue Henri Menier in Sept-Îles, Quebec was named in his honor.