The Forgotten Story of the Jacques Cartier Medallion
This is a fascinating story about a wooden relic that was found washed up on a beach.
It was from a ship that went ashore on the rocks near Cap-des-Rosiers and much to the fascination of the local people the medallion had the image of what looked like Jacques Cartier carved into it.
It went missing and was found decades later in the wall of an old house that was being torn down. It then became a quest to prove that the image was that of the early explorer who discovered the Gaspe Coast and gave the name Canada to our country in 1534.
This story was written by John Mason Clark, an American scientist, botanist, paleontologist, geologist, teacher, and amazing storyteller and educator around 1900. Although he travelled all over the world, it was the Gaspe Coast that he returned to year after year.
He was the author of more than 10,000 printed pages, distributed among 450 books and papers.
He also wrote two classic books about the Gaspe Coast.
The Heart of Gaspe
The Gaspe – A Sign Post to the Traveller