ST. CROIX ISLAND, Maine — Long a footnote to history, this uninhabited island in the St. Croix River that marks the U.S.-Canadian border is poised to become the focal point for a 10-day international celebration.
On June 26, when dignitaries from France, Canada and the United States set foot on the 6 1/2-acre grassy outcropping, it will look much as it did when Pierre Dugua, Samuel Champlain and 77 other men arrived 400 years ago to carve out the first French settlement in the New World.
The ceremony marking the anniversary will involve as many as 40 officials, including French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and an as yet unnamed U.S. official.
The ceremony will also include representatives of the Passamaquoddy Indians, whose forebears helped the settlers during the cold winter in which nearly half of them died.
The 1604 settlement came three years before English colonists landed in Jamestown and 16 years before the Pilgrims sailed the Mayflower to Plymouth.
While those settlements are familiar to American schoolchildren, the ill-fated St. Croix settlement has received little mention in history books.
"History is written by the winners," said Deb Wade of the U.S. National Park Service, which administers St. Croix Island as its only international historic site. British military triumphs during the 18th century ended the prospect of French hegemony in North America.
Nonetheless, Dugua, a nobleman known as Sieur de Mons, gets credit for beating the English to establish a settlement in North America.
Dugua sailed with two galleons into Passamaquoddy Bay and up a river to an island that appeared defensible and well-suited to his planned settlement. Armed with a grant from the king of France, his mission was to colonize the land and bring Christianity to its inhabitants. Dugua named the island St. Croix because it was near the confluence of rivers resembling the arms of a cross.
The settlers cleared a site, planted gardens and erected dwellings, a kitchen, a storehouse, a blacksmith shop, and a chapel. In early October, not long after Champlain returned from a historic voyage to Mount Desert Island, the first snow fell, setting the stage for an unusually harsh winter.
By Christmas, the river was choked with ice floes, cutting off access to the mainland. The settlers ran low on drinking water, fresh food and firewood. Surviving on preserved food, wine and melted snow, they developed scurvy; 35 of the men died and were buried on the island.
After a ship arrived in June, Dugua dismantled the settlement and moved it to Nova Scotia at a spot Champlain named Port Royal.
"It all started here" is the motto for the anniversary celebration, a reference to the island's place in history as the beginning of a lasting French presence in North America. An estimated 18 million people of French descent now live on the continent, including some who trace their roots to Acadians expelled by the British in 1755.
Norma Stewart, executive director of the Ste-Croix 2004 Coordinating Committee, expects at least 10,000 people to gather along the shore in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on June 26 to watch actors aboard a tall ship and canoes re-enact the first contact between the French settlers and the Passamaquoddy.
That meeting was the start of what historians view as an amiable relationship between the French and the native Americans.
Yet while they are participating in the event, the Passamaquoddy Indians view white man's arrival as a watershed event that brought tragedy to the Indians. After much debate, the tribe agreed to take part in the anniversary events.
Passamaquoddy historian Donald Soctomah recounts how the arrival of the Europeans put pressure on the natural resources with which the Indians had lived in harmony; worst of all were the diseases introduced by the newcomers.
"It's a celebration for them, and we respect that," Soctomah said. "For us, it's a commemoration of remembrance, and a chance to educate."
The windswept island holds no visible traces of the early settlement. The only structures are a small maintenance shed and an old boathouse.
There is a navigational tower and a flagpole, on which Wade plans to display a flag in advance of the anniversary commemoration.
"This is the most historically correct one we could have chosen," she said of the white flag that signified the authority of the king of France. "If (Dugua) were to fly the flag, that would have been the one."
The estuary's 27-foot tides have reduced the island's size by roughly one-third, and erosion continues at a rate of 1 to 2 inches a year, Stewart said.
In fact, St. Croix was known in the 18th century as Bone Island because of a burial site, according to Stewart. "Literally, the island was eroding and the bones were being exposed."
Last year, archaeologists and anthropologists reburied the bones of 23 settlers that were removed in 1969 and taken to Temple University in Philadelphia for analysis.
The settlement's Roman Catholic priest and Huguenot minister were among the 35 buried on the island. Because they were constantly at odds, local lore has it that the two were buried face to face so they could carry on their theological disputes in the hereafter.
If you go
St. Croix Settlement 400th Anniversary Celebration: Events commemorating the anniversary will be held on the island; in Eastport and Calais, Maine; and in Bayside, St. Stephen and St. Andrews, in New Brunswick, Canada. There are two interpretive sites related to the settlement, one in Red Beach, Calais, maintained by the National Park Service, and the other in Bayside. Events run from June 25 to July 4. For a complete schedule, visit www.stecroix2004.org or call 506-466-7403. Here are some highlights:
— June 25 in Calais Town Square: Performances, commemorative ceremonies and speeches by officials in Calais Town Square, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
— June 26 at St. Andrews Indian Point: Sunrise ceremony, performed by the Passamaquoddy, 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Oral history presentation from the tribe, 9:30 p.m. to 10 a.m. Wabanaki Transformers Theater, "Drama for Giving," 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Re-enactment of first contact between the French and Indians, featuring the tall ship SV Cory, 11 a.m. to noon.
— June 26 in Bayside, at St. Croix Island National Historic Site: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., commemoration of first contact between the French and the Indians, followed by festivities from 6 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. that will include Acadian and contemporary music, a skydiving demonstration and fireworks.
— June 27 in Bayside, at the historic site, a craft show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; a 3 p.m. choir concert; 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., performances of traditional and popular music; a 7:30 p.m. performance by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.
— June 28 in Bayside, at the historic site, craft show, noon to 5 p.m.; at New Brunswick Community College in St. Andrews at 7 p.m., a lecture on the history of the settlement.
— June 30 in Bayside, at the historic site, noon to 7 p.m., acoustic musical performances.
— July 1 in St. Andrews Town Square, a Canada Day celebration, 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; in St. Stephen Town Square, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., family entertainment; in Bayside, "Wool in the Park," with knitting, rug-hooking, weaving and spinning demonstrations, noon to 5 p.m.
— July 2, in St. Stephen Town Square, show by the Passamaquoddy Performers, July 2, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
— July 3, at New Brunswick Community College, St. Andrews, "Genealogy Fair," 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; in Bayside, crafts show, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
— July 4, in Eastport, Independence Day celebration, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; in Bayside, craft show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Interpretive displays: Exhibits that detail the settlers' grueling saga have been installed at riverfront sites at Red Beach in Calais, and in Bayside.
Downeast Heritage Center: 39 Union St., Calais, 877-454-2500 or www.downeastheritage.org. Open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in June and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through September. "Ile Ste. Croix" exhibit commemorates the 400th anniversary of the landing and settlement.