The Ancient Ruins
The ancient stone ruins of LeTerrain, La Pêche, West Quebec
La Pêche, Québec
Scattered through the forest at LeTerrain and across the surrounding hills stand dry stone constructs no one has explained. Some hold tons of stacked stone. They appear in no settler record, and the people who farmed these clearings left no account of building them. Who placed the stones, and when, is still an open question. This page is what years of walking and measuring the sites have turned up so far.
“Mysterious stone structures in northern Quebec’s wilderness spark debate over Canada’s ancient past”
The Debrief
The documentary
Seven years of field research, in seven minutes
The Champlain Sea
This land was once an island
When the last ice sheet withdrew, some twelve thousand years ago, the ocean followed it in. The Champlain Sea flooded the Ottawa Valley, and the high ground at LeTerrain stood above the water as an island. Over thousands of years the land rose, the sea drained away, and the shoreline moved slowly downhill to where the rivers run today.
That vanished coastline can still be traced on a map, and so can the stone sites. The major sites, clusters of ten constructs or more, all stand near the ancient shoreline, and none stand below it. Whoever placed the stones seems to have known this coast.
Watch the sea recede
Ten thousand years of shoreline over the recorded sites, in one pass. The red markers are all ceremonial stone sites: all are on ‘islands’, not one below the shoreline. It plays once on its own; drag the timeline to move through it yourself.
What is on the ground, and what is on record
1992, the local paper
There is no indication that these stone monuments were ever graves, as no human remains have been documented within them, even among the thousands demolished throughout New England. Their intentional designs, clustering, and relationships to one another point instead to a more complex ritual or ceremonial purpose.
The scale
These are not casual piles. Individual cairns run to hundreds of placed stones, shoulder high and higher, holding their shape under a century or more of frost. Clearing a field does not require architecture.
Twenty four mega sites
Across LeTerrain and the surrounding wilderness, twenty four clusters of ten or more stone constructs have been located and recorded so far: mounds, walls, and arrangements that repeat from site to site. The mapping continues.
The research, on film
Steve films the research as it happens. Four films from the field; the channel keeps going.
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Stand where the questions are
The ruins tour is a member experience. Membership opens the whole place, trails and dark sky preserve included, and members book the tour online. Join from CA$20 a month; the Earth tier adds a cabin night every month, so the walk can end under the stars.
