Port at the Mouth of the Metis River

The port at Grand-Métis was busy with ships in 1800s and the 1900s. The port welcomed small cargo ships and goélettes, small sailing ships that were able to negotiate the shallow draft in the bay and rest on the river bottom at low tide. The ships took on “deals” or sawn planks about 3 inches thick, and often took them offshore to larger ships that were anchored in deeper water. Even after the mills were moved south to be near the rail line built from Mont-Joli to Matane in Price, the wharf was used until the 1950s. The wooden pilings of the wharf and a few iron rings embedded in boulders are all that is left of the port facilities today.