From Isle Vaudreuil to Isle Cadieux

The Lake of Two Mountains took its present form about 7,000 years ago following the last ice ages and the arrival of powerful streams from the ancestors of the Great Lakes. Over the millennia, these rivers have become entrenched, forming terraces and transporting alluvial deposits that build basins, rocky sills and islands. Île Cadieux and its neighbors were created during this period.

This small island is a natural sanctuary that has been frequented since prehistoric times, between 6,000 and 3,500 years ago, by various Indigenous groups who have left some material traces of their passage on the island as well as on île aux Tourtes, its neighbor.

In 1716, Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (1650-1725) obtained the concession of the lordship that would bear his name, which included these islands. The first mention of the island is found in an official document dated March 5, 1725. It mentions that above isle aux Tourtes there is an island named isle Vaudreuil, on which there is a house 25 feet long (7.62 meters) by 16 feet (4.87 meters) wide and about 5 acres of plowed land.

These islands, located on an important navigation axis, were of great strategic military and commercial interest during the 18th century. They appear on the first marine maps of the area and the small strait is particularly mentioned.

In 1752, the expedition notebook of military engineer Louis Franquet states: “The channel between isle aux Tourtes and the land of the lordship of Vaudreuil is called the small strait. That there is still a small island named isle Vaudreuil, situated below the said isle aux Tourtes and separated by a channel from the lands of the lordship of that name.”

It was also in 1752 that the Lord of Vaudreuil granted by contract to Pierre Cadieux (1703-1782), a farmer from Vaudreuil, a small island called isle Vaudreuil. From then on, the island will be commonly referred to as île Cadieux.

The island will remain uninhabited for many years and will change owners many times. However, at the end of the 19th century, it is known by a few vacationers who already own summer homes in Vaudreuil and Dorion. They reach it by boat and occasionally settle there in a rudimentary way to spend a few days. In 1892, a few of these Montreal businessmen, Napoléon-Édouard Hamilton, Hormisdas Laporte et Léonard-Iréné Boivin, form a partnership which becomes owner of the island.

It is the start of vacationing as the island is becoming better known and frequented by summer visitors. It was first on île Cadieux that this activity, so appreciated by the bourgeois of the city, and which will extend, a few years later, to Belle-Plage (Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac).