page_title: Tadoussac
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tadoussac / History
context_page_description: Tadoussac is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu called the place Totouskak meaning "bosom", probably in reference to the two round and sandy hills located on the west side of the village. According to other interpretations, it could also mean "place of lobsters", or "place where the ice is broken". Although located in Innu territory, the post was also frequented by the Mi'kmaq people in the second half of the 16th century, who called it Gtatosag. Alternate spellings of Tadoussac over the centuries included Tadousac, Tadoussak, and Thadoyzeau.
  Tadoussac was first visited by Europeans in 1535 and was established in 1599 when the first trading post in Canada was formed there, in addition to a permanent settlement being placed in the same area that the Grand Hotel is located today.
context_section_description: Jacques Cartier came to the site in 1535 during his second voyage. He found Innu people using it as a base for hunting seal. Later that same century, Basques conducted whaling expeditions on the river, as well as engaging in hides trade with the natives based in the shore at the mouth of the Sagueney.
  Tadoussac was founded in 1599 by François Gravé Du Pont, a merchant, and Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit, a captain of the French Royal Navy, when they acquired a fur trade monopoly from King Henry IV. Gravé and Chauvin built the settlement on the shore at the mouth of the Saguenay River, at its confluence with the St. Lawrence, to profit from its location. But the frontier was harsh and only sixteen of the initial 50 settlers survived the first winter. In 1603, the tabagie or "feast" of Tadoussac reunited Gravé with Samuel de Champlain and with the Montagnais, the Algonquins, and the Etchimins." In 1615, the Mission of L'Exaltation-de-la-Sainte-Croix-de-Tadoussac, named in memory of a cross planted by Jean de Quen, was founded by the Récollet Order. Their missionary brothers sang the first Mass there two years later.
  Tadoussac remained the only seaport on the St. Lawrence River for 30 years. Historians believe the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, who inhabited the St. Lawrence valley upriver to the west, were defeated and pushed out by the Mohawk before the early 17th century. By the late 17th and early 18th century, Tadoussac was the centre of fur trade between the French and First Nations peoples.  Competition over the fur trade increased among the nations. Colonists from the Tadoussac area were involved in whaling from 1632 until at least the end of the century.
  In the 19th century, with industrialization reaching other parts of Canada, tourists discovered the appeal of this rural village. Wealthy Québécois built a number of vacation villas.  A Victorian hotel called the Hotel Tadoussac was built in 1864; it was expanded around 1900 and demolished in 1942, and replaced by a newer Hotel Tadoussac.
  In 1855, the geographic township of Tadoussac was established. In 1899, it was incorporated as a village municipality. In 1937, the Parish Municipality of Tadoussac was formed, but dissolved in 1949 because it had less than 500 inhabitants.
caption: Tadoussac in about 1612, illustrated by Samuel de Champlain
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