Celebrating St. Croix

History has long overlooked the short-lived French settlement on St. Croix Island, devoting attention to the later but longer-lasting English endeavors at Jamestown and Plymouth. Now, 400 years after French settlers landed on the small outcropping between what is now the United States and Canada, St. Croix Island is finally getting some deserved attention.

Dignitaries from France, Canada, the United States and the Passamaquoddy Tribe will be on hand June 26 to commemorate the 1604 arrival of Samuel Champlain and 79 other men sent to establish the first French settlement in the New World. The history of the settlement itself is short. Armed with a grant from the King of France, Pierre Dugua, a nobleman known as Sieur de Mons, led two ships into Passamaquoddy Bay and up the river to the island, which he named St. Croix because it resembled the arms of a cross.

His mission was to colonize the land and convert its inhabitants to Christianity. The settler erected dwellings, a chapel, storehouse and other buildings and planted gardens.

In early October, after Champlain returned from his famed trip to Mount Desert Island, the first snow fell. During an unusually harsh winter, the river became choked with ice floes, cutting off the settlers from the mainland. They ran low on food, water and firewood and 35 of the men died and were buried on the island. When a ship arrived in June, Dugua moved the settlement, with fresh food and medicine from the Passamaquoddies, to Nova Scotia.

Although they abandoned the island, which is now an International Historic Site, the St. Croix experience shaped further French advances into North America. Samuel Champlain went on to explore and chart the coast of what he called Norumbega, including the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic coast as far south as Cape Cod.

Although the British later expelled many French from Acadia in the Canadian Maritimes in the late 1700s, an estimated 18 million people of French descent now live in the United States and Canada. For some of them, the motto of the 400th anniversary celebration – “It all started here/ Nos premiers debuts” – holds true.

The focal point of this summer’s festivities, the 61/2-acre island remains uninhabited and relatively unchanged today. The French and Canadian prime ministers, along with U.S. officials that may include ambassador to Canada Paul Celluci and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, will go to the island for an official ceremony on June 26, the anniversary of the landing.

The larger festivities, including storytellers, musicians and tasting of a commemorative wine, will be held on the mainland on both sides of the border. Beginning Friday evening in Calais, home of the new Downeast Heritage Center, events will run nearly all day and into the evenings through the next nine days, culminating on the U.S. side with Eastport’s Fourth of July celebrations. Ships from Canadian forces and the U.S. Navy are expected to be on hand to re-enact the first contact between Europeans and tribal groups at St. Andrews Indian Point on June 26. Despite sometimes-rocky relations with the U.S. and Canadian governments, members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe will participate in the commemorations as a means of educating attendees about their heritage.

Although they didn’t stay long, Messrs. Champlain and Dugua had a lasting impact on the history of America and Canada. This summer, they will finally get their due.