The Headland of Point Riche is located near the community of Port au Choix on the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Point Riche to Cape Bonavista was the northernmost defining point on the Newfoundland coastline, where the French could fish around the coast of Newfoundland, an area called the French Shore.[1][2] The French fishing rights were first defined in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This area had been frequented by fishermen from Brittany since the early 16th century.[3] In the 1783 Treaty of Versailles, the boundary points of the French Shore were changed to Cape St. John and Cape Ray.[4] In 1904, the French relinquished all their rights to the French Shore, as part of the Entente Cordiale.
The point is marked by the Point Riche Lighthouse, a wooden lighthouse which was constructed in 1871 and replaced with stone lighthouse in 1892.[5]
- ^ The North American Review. Vol. 62. Boston: Otis, Broaders and Co. 1846. p. 365.
- ^ Hopkins, John Castell, ed. (1898). Canada: an Encyclopædia of the Country: The Canadian Dominion Considered in Its Historic Relations, Its Natural Resources, Its Material Progress and Its National Development, by a Corps of Eminent Writers and Specialists. Vol. 1. Linscott Publishing Company. p. 71.
- ^ The French Treaty Shore: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage
- ^ Nicholson, Norman (1979). Boundaries of the Canadian Confederation. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780773560154.
- ^ Mussio, Russell, ed. (2014). New Foundland & Labrador Backroad Mapbook. Mussio Ventures Ltd. p. 85. ISBN 9781894556958.