Museum and archaeological day

Les Sentiers de Gore presented its museum and archaeological day, "10,000 years under our feet." This day was a great success and we thank all participants.Thank you to our speakers who shared their unpretentious knowledge, Roland Tremblay (Ethnoscop), Sylvie Constantin, Sylvain Généreux (Gardien du Patrimoine archéologique des Hautes-Laurentides), Jean-Louis Courteau (director of CIEL) and Richard Lahaie (filmmaker).

 Margaret Cook

From 1949 to 1971, Margaret Cook’s columns can be read in the newspaper “The Lachute Watchman”. In her Sunnyacres Sketches, she recounts her daily life and community, takes a stand, describes her region and shares her impressions in a personal way.

The first step in this long journey that led to the republication of the book Land Possessed and its publication in French was the dramatic reading of Don Stewart’s play (Nature’s Victory), which had already been performed in Morin-Heights in 2005, in English. This time, we will do it for the first time in French under the title of Triumph of Nature. Don Stewart’s play was translated by Judith Bissonnette on a volunteer basis.

At the press conference given at the Sir John de Lachute brewery, in the presence of author and playwright Don Stewart, director Amy-Maude Foucault of the Argenteuil Amateur Theatre Company, Scott Pearce, Prefect of the MRC d'Argenteuil, and Évelyne Bergeron, Representative of the MPP, Mr. Hamilton said that Mr. Stewart was inspired by the work of Margaret Cook, de Gore, who had been a high school teacher at Lachute Academy and Lachute High School from 1918 to 1922. He pointed out that Land Possessed is also a love story between a young Protestant English-speaking woman and a Catholic French-Canadian. “The cultural tensions of the time have made it a tragedy,” said the president of Sentiers de Gore.

Hélène Beauchamp and Jean-François Hamilton wanted to preserve his memory by writing his biography, Life as it is. Hélène Beauchamp first discovered Margaret Cook through The Triumph of Nature. The play is a theatrical adaptation of Cook’s novel, Land Possessed, by Morin-Heights historian Donald Stewart. "My encounter began with the dramatic reading of the text. I said yes. I liked it very much."

Then Jean-François Hamilton and others from the Gore Trails shoot a documentary on the vanished village of Shrewsbury, also titled The Triumph of Nature. They approached Mrs. Beauchamp to play Margaret Cook and her writings, and she became intrigued by the unknown writer. “What fascinated Jean-François most was the territory. [...] Yes, but who was this woman?”

Long search

Research in notarial and official documents, in newspapers of the time and on her genealogy allows to trace the life of the writer. The Facebook group “Lachute as we remember” was also a valuable source of information.

Margaret Cook questions local people about their ancestors and she incorporates the issues of the Irish community, which she knows well, into her novel. “She knows that these people are very radical in their way of preserving their way of thinking, their way of life and their history. They are very firmly and proudly attached to their history and their Anglican faith.”

Changes in covers

1969		2024

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