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Sketches of the Restigouche


The Restigouche Freshet and Ice-Jam part 2
Miramichi Advance May 6, 1897

        A freshet and ice jam of magnitude and destructive results heretofore unequalled in the locality occurred on the Restigouche River and its tributaries last week.

        The meeting of the Waters

        On Tuesday morning it was known at the mouth of the Metapedia that the little village was in danger. The ice-shove hung at the head of an island a mile or two up the river and formed a dam, which was momentarily expected to give way, and be borne down with resistless sweep. At the same time, a similar barrier had piled itself upon the bars below J. P. Mowat's mill at Moore's settlement on the Restigouche, about two and a half miles above the Intercolonial Railway bridge, which spans the main Restigouche immediately below the mouth of the Metapedia. A few of the leading and more thoughtful residents of Metapedia realised the probabilities of the situation on Tuesday, and foresaw what must happen should the now dammed up waters, ten and fifteen feet above freshet level - and held back in the two rivers a few miles above, only by so treacherous a barrier as ice and debris - rush down simultaneously upon them. Fortunately, however, the break in the main river preceded that in the Metapedia.

        Near Metapedia village

        The pent up waters at Moore's settlement burst their barrier on the bar on Tuesday and preceded by the ice shove, moved downwards. The ice and debris however lodged again near the head of Adams Island and turned as heavy current into the channel on the Quebec side, while an equally strong current ran on the New Brunswick side. The ice piled against the strong elms and maples on Adams and other low islands for a few minutes and then these handsome trees snapped with sharp reports and many of them were carried away, together with much of the soil in which they had grown. The structure known as the Gaspe house on one of the islands in front of the Restigouche Salmon Club's property was overwhelmed and borne onward with the ice and broken and up-rooted trees, which now found lodgement against the Intercolonial Railway bridge. The solid masonry in the abutments and piers of this work stood firmly a sturdy testimonial of the skill and thoroughness with which its engineers had planned and its builders executed the important stone and iron structure which gives northern New Brunswick its railway connection with Quebec. AS the flood swelled behind the ice-barrier, it rose upon the piers and piled in an up river direction until a break occurred on the NB side, and again there was a rush, but only for a few hundred yards, for the moving ice, lodged upon Bells' Island just below the railway bridge, where it tumbled and piled up like ocean breakers on an exposed shore and heaped upon it and flanked it to the shores of the two provinces until it erected a barrier more strong and hgih than any which had accumulated up river.

        The submerging of Metapedia and Lawlor's Flat

        Meantime, the waters of the Restigouche, thus arrested in their course to the Bay Chaleur, reversed their current early on Wednesday morning and moved in upon the cultivated interval lands of the old Fraser property, now the head house of the famous Restigouche Salmon Club, running also inside the islands of the Metapedia, submerging Lawlor's Flat and with their floating ice-boulders acting like battering rams, demolishing the farm buildings and thrusting the western approach of the Mercier highway bridge over the Metapedia from its position and carrying it up stream some distance. On the opposite side at Metapedia Village there as an eddy current moving downwards, carrying along hundreds of floating ice islands nearly as big as the houses and barns, and the rapidly rising water bore these inwards upon the highway running along between the stores and hotel properties of Mr James Gillis and Adam Ferguson, and by that of postmaster Eusebe Doiron, who also is a large store keeper. A large piece of ice, running with great force against the end of Ferguson's two storey hotel, crashed through the wall into the largest room in the building, carrying all before it, until it lodged against the opposite wall and in a few minutes drifted out again and remained aground, partly obstructing the passage of boats over what had been the main street, where the water was now fully ten feet deep. Ice had carried away and crushed parts of the dwellings of Mrs. Aylett, the widow of a retired office of the Imperial service, Messrs. Adams and others, while the Gillis hotel was also damaged some of its veranda columns being knocked away and the water nearly ceiling deep on its first floor.

        To be continued......................

        Thanks to Tim Jaques at the Tribune for this very interesting article

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