{"id":351,"date":"2020-09-14T14:13:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T14:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/?page_id=351"},"modified":"2025-02-28T02:44:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T02:44:32","slug":"the-abandoned-french-colonization-of-st-croix-island-maine-1604-1607","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/the-abandoned-french-colonization-of-st-croix-island-maine-1604-1607\/","title":{"rendered":"The Abandoned French Colonization of St. Croix Island, Maine (1604\u20131607)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What happened?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1604, Pierre Dugua, a French nobleman, along with 79 Frenchmen arrived on the island of St. Croix, in present-day Maine, to establish a new colony. Dugua intended to colonize North America and trade with Indigenous Peoples &#8212; primarily the tribes belonging to the Wabanaki Confederacy &#8212; for furs. He chose St. Croix because it offered protection from the Indigenous Peoples as well as the English.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Winter that year came early and was extremely severe, with the first snow on October 6th. Of the 79 men, 35 died and more than 20 were on the verge of death, both from the cold and from scurvy because they ate nothing but salted food. Once spring came, and the ice surrounding the island melted, the remaining men left to find a more hospitable site for a colony.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Had the settlers not left as a result of illness and the extreme weather, the island may have become part of the French colonies. Instead, the remaining buildings were left to Membertou, chief of the Mi\u2019kmaq peoples. In 1613, Captain Argall of Virginia carried out orders to drive the French from the coast, and destroyed the buildings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_345\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-345\" class=\"wp-image-345\" src=\"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-624x415.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2020\/09\/st-croix.jpg 1199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An overhead view of St. Croix Island, which today is an International Historic Site (from Visit Maine).<\/p><\/div>\n<h3><strong>How is this related to climate?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The winter of 1604 was the coldest winter in decades, and the French settlers were unprepared for its severity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/the-effects-of-the-little-ice-age\/\">The Little Ice Age<\/a>, a period of widespread cooling between 1300 and 1850, contributed to this particularly cold winter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>References and additional resources:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cousins, C. \u201cAn Island Prison: Rugged St. Croix Island Brought Ghastly Death to Early Settlers.\u201d Bangor Daily News. 2011. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bangordailynews.com\/2011\/08\/19\/news\/an-island-prison-rugged-st-croix-island-brought-ghastly-death-to-early-settlers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/bangordailynews.com\/2011\/08\/19\/news\/an-island-prison-rugged-st-croix-island-brought-ghastly-death-to-early-settlers\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lieberman, B. and Gordon, E. Climate change in human history: prehistory to the present. London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSaint Croix Island International Historic Site.\u201d<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Visit Maine<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, n.d. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/visitmaine.com\/organization\/saint-croix-island-international-historic-site\/3573bcef-e51a-4bd9-99ae-e9883c55d1f3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/visitmaine.com\/organization\/saint-croix-island-international-historic-site\/3573bcef-e51a-4bd9-99ae-e9883c55d1f3<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSamuel de Champlain 1604-1616.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Virtual Museum of New France<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, n.d. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/the-explorers\/samuel-de-champlain-1604-1616\/.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/the-explorers\/samuel-de-champlain-1604-1616\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSix Ways the Little Ice Age Made History.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New England Historical Society<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 2018.<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com\/six-ways-little-ice-age-made-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0http:\/\/www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com\/six-ways-little-ice-age-made-history\/<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSt. Croix Island, The Lost French Colony of Maine.\u201d <i style=\"font-size: 1rem\">New England Historical Society<\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. 2016. <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com\/st-croix-island-lost-french-colony-maine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com\/st-croix-island-lost-french-colony-maine\/<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How to cite this page<\/h3>\n<p><em>The Abandoned French Colonization of St. Croix Island, Maine (1604\u20131607)<\/em>. (2021, June 30). Climate in Global Cultures and Histories: Promoting Climate Literacy Across Disciplines. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/the-abandoned-french-colonization-of-st-croix-island-maine-1604-1607\/\">https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/the-abandoned-french-colonization-of-st-croix-island-maine-1604-1607\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What happened? In 1604, Pierre Dugua, a French nobleman, along with 79 Frenchmen arrived on the island of St. Croix, in present-day Maine, to establish a new colony. Dugua intended [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-351","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Abandoned French Colonization of St. Croix Island, Maine (1604\u20131607) - Climate in Arts and History<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.smith.edu\/climatelit\/the-abandoned-french-colonization-of-st-croix-island-maine-1604-1607\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Abandoned French Colonization of St. Croix Island, Maine (1604\u20131607) - Climate in Arts and History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happened? 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