Shippagan

Shippagan
Town
The Marina in Shippagan
Shippagan Location within New Brunswick.
Coordinates:
Country	Canada
Province	New Brunswick
County	Gloucester
Parish	Shippagan
Founded	1790
Government
• Type	Town Council
• Mayor	Tilmon Mallet
Area
• Total	9.94 km2 (3.84 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	2,631
• Density	264.7/km2 (686/sq mi)
• Pop 2006-2011	4.5%
• Dwellings	1,199
Time zone	AST (UTC-4)
• Summer (DST)	ADT (UTC-3)
Postal code(s)	E8S
Area code(s)	506
Website	www.shippagan.ca

Shippagan (2011 population: 2,631) is a Canadian town in Gloucester County, New Brunswick.

Geography

Shippagan is located in the northeastern part of the Acadian Peninsula: a combination bridge-causeway connects the town with Lamèque Island to the northeast.

The peninsula is approximately 5 km (3 miles) long and at maximum 5 km (3 miles) wide, bordered on the north-west by Shippagan Bay, to the north by Shippagan harbour to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and to the west by St Simon's Bay.

Approximately 99% of the town's residents are Francophone.

History

See also: History of New Brunswick and List of historic places in Gloucester County, New Brunswick

The town was founded by the Duguay family, from Paspébiac, Quebec, in 1790. Acadian settlers later joined them. Its location was an ideal spot for exporting timber from further inland, as well as fishing. There are also numerous peat bogs in the area.

Shippagan is home to campuses of the Université de Moncton and New Brunswick Community College.

The name

The name originates from the Mi'kmaq Sepagun-chiche, which roughly translates as "Ducks' transit route". This name described the immediate region rather than the specific location of the current settlement that inherited the name.

Different spellings have been applied over the years. None of the earliest known francophone explorers such as Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and Nicolas Denys mentions the name Shippagan, which appears in writing for the first time only in 1656 when Ignatius of Paris, a Capucine missionary, wrote to his superiors recommending the establishment of four or five missionary posts, one of which he called "Cibaguensi", a Latinised form of Shippagan.

During the eighteenth century various orthographies were used for the nearby settlement on the site of what is now Bas-Caraquet, most commonly Chipagan, and this is the name subsequently applied and adapted for modern-day Shippagan. Early English language texts applied the francophone spelling, "Chipagan", but from the early nineteenth centuries various anglophone variants were preferred, such as Shipagan, Ship-a-gang, Shipegan, Shippegan, Shippigan and Shippagan. By the twenty-first century custom had settled on "Town of Shippagan" which on 9 September 2009 was officially reduced to "Shippagan".

Demographics

Population

Historical Census Data - Shippagan, New Brunswick
Year Pop. ±% 1991 2,760 —     1996 2,862 +3.7% 2001 2,872 +0.3%	Year Pop. ±% 2001A 2,920 +1.7% 2006 2,754 −5.7% 2011 2,603 −5.5%	Year Pop. ±% 2011E 2,631 +1.1%
(A) adjustment due to boundary change (E) revised count - Population and dwelling count amendments, 2011 Census

Language

Canada Census Mother Tongue - Shippagan, New Brunswick
Census		Total		French				English				French & English				Other
Year		Responses		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %		Count	Trend	Pop %
2011		2,465		2,375	4.4%	96.35%		45	35.7%	1.82%		10	0.0%	0.41%		35	75.0%	1.42%
2006		2,585		2,485	7.1%	96.13%		70	180.0%	2.71%		10	n/a%	0.39%		20	100.0%	0.77%
2001		2,710		2,675	2.1%	98.71%		25	64.3%	0.92%		0	100.0%	0.00%		10	n/a%	0.37%
1996		2,700		2,620	n/a	97.04%		70	n/a	2.59%		10	n/a	0.37%		0	n/a	0.00%

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Gloucester County, New Brunswick

• Michael Ward - an NHL ice hockey defenseman currently playing for Tampa Bay Lightning.
• Luc Bourdon - an NHL ice hockey defenseman who played with the Vancouver Canucks.

See also

• List of communities in New Brunswick

External links

• Town of Shippagan