Sept-Iles Attractions

Sept-Îles, the largest town on the North Shore, lies at the entrance to Sept-Îles Bay. It was given its name by Jacques Cartier, who discovered this bay with its seven islands in 1535. In 1650 Father Jean Dequen founded a mission here. Following colonization in the middle of the 19th c., mainly fishermen and lumberjacks settled here.

Sept-Îles is a booming French-Canadian port on the Gulf of St Lawrence, about 600 km (373 mi.) north of Québec City.

At the entrance to a fiord, in the lee of seven rocky islands, the site was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535. A mission station was founded here in the 17th c. but the place only appears to have been permanently settled from the mid-19th century. In 1950 Sept-Îles was a sleepy fishing village of a few hundred people.

Since then, the port of Sept-Îles, which also has the regional airport, has become the administrative and supply center for the entire north shore, due largely to being the terminal for the 575 km (357-mi.) rail line bringing mineral raw materials from such parts of Labrador as Labrador City and Wabush, and above all the iron ore from Schefferville for shipment to the USA, Japan and Europe in the giant freighters operating out of the sheltered, deepwater fiord harbor, with the second highest volume of shipping tonnage in Canada.

Sept-Îles is a good base for hunting and fishing trips in the locality, and particularly for salmon at Moisie, about 12 km (71/2 mi.) to the east.