Dan is an American who operates the campground from April to mid October, then winters in Mississippi where he has a number of rental properties.
Dan came to the Gaspe in the early 60s and bought about 100 acres of land with side acreage along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then the rest surrounded by hills and pine trees. It is a hilly piece of property. Once you hike up the forested path he prepared, you come to the back side of the property which goes down to the sea. There are large rocks and caves which are very common along the shores, and to our great surprise, there are several colony of seals offshore.
Dan built these campsites himself in the summers while teaching biology in Mississippi during the school year. He has a wonderful small two-story red house with red metal roof that he had restored. One interesting thing is that is has two beautiful two-story high stain glass windows which he said he bought from a local priest to discover after they were in place that the priest had stolen them from the church. I am not sure how all that was resolved as the windows are still in place at his house.
Dan was here during the stormy separatist movement of the French wanting Quebec to be a separate country from Canada. He said in earlier years, the French owned and worked this land. Some were uneducated and basically farmers and laborers. The more educated French were the shop owners, town council, and people with businesses that made money. After Americans won their independence from England, Loyalist Americans to the crown were forced to leave America and came to Quebec where they forced the business French out and basically confiscated their property leaving only the poorer French.
Now fast forward to Dan's beginnings here in the early 60s. He said if you were not French and went into a store to purchase something from the non French shop owners, if there were French customers ahead of you, the shop owner would attend to the non French. Dan said the French were treated like the blacks had been treated in the U.S. prior to the civil rights movement. They were very humiliated by this treatment. To this day, on their license plates in Quebec providence, is the saying we remember which refers to this treatment.
Eventually, the French separatists came to Gaspe, murdering a number of the shop owners and basically having a bit of a violent re-taking of their lands. Dan said it was a very difficult time. The French went through stages after that. At first if visitors came and didn't speak French, they were not served by the French. This put a big dent into any tourism in the area. Fishing and farming were and are their main way of earning a living and both in this climate are seasonal. Finally, the French realized that if they were more tolerant of others and made the tourists feel welcome, then they would find their economic situation improved and that is what has happened.
We have found, the people here to be friendly and helpful. When we go to the shops, the French owners will spend time speaking with us and telling us about their business--like the fresh fish store, the owner showed us his freezers and holding tanks and discussed the different fish and how to prepare them. like the goat cheese farmer who explained the different cheeses to us and that they had 97 goats. It has been a wonderful experience. A smile goes a long way to breaking down cultural barriers.
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