Navy Island (Ouigoudy Island)

English: , Through this viewing tube you can see a small patch of ground around one of the abutments of the Saint John Harbour Bridge. This is all that remains visible of a small island known as Navy Island. For centuries this island was an important Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nation summer village site, and later, for about 150 years, the home of Saint John families engaged in commercial fishing and shipbuilding. In 1979 it was developed as the Navy Island Forest Products Terminal, covering any sign of human habitation. , The Wolastoqiyik name for the village and the island was “Ouigoudy.” Its appearance was recorded by Samuel de Champlain, the geographer and cartographer on a 1604 reconnaissance expedition from France, led by Pierre Dugua de Mons. Champlain noted "The town of Ouigoudi (thus I call the place where the said Chkoudun lived) was a large enclosure on a flat-topped hill, surrounded by tall, slender trees attached together, and inside were several large and small huts, one of which was as big as a market hall and housed many families. As for the one where they held feasts, it was a little smaller." , The Wolastoqiyik were clearly well established at the mouth of the Wolastoq or “beautiful river,” their own name for themselves being Wolastoqiyik or “people of the beautiful river.”, It was the French expedition that decided to call it the "Fleuve Saint-Jean," as their arrival on June 24th, 1604 coincided with their religious feast for St. John the Baptist. In later years, with the influx of English speaking people, “Fleuve Saint-Jean” was anglicized to “St. John River” and the city became “Saint John.” ,