JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report

A $25,000 grant from the Vaudreuil-Soulanges MRC to the Pointe-du-Moulin Historical Park last October will help the Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot organization that maintains the windmill to continue providing its various cultural activities this year.

“Our mission is to offer different kinds of animations for the population of Île Perrot, Vaudreuil-Soulanges and all the population of Quebec,” said Charles-Olivier Bellerose Bélanger, the general manager of the park.

“These are mostly free activities that have an educative and cultural purpose,” Bélanger said.

The park also received a $45,000 provincial grant from the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC).

.

“The park is owned by the government of Quebec,” Bélanger explaind. “They have a mission to keep this place alive with activities so they mandate our non-profit organization to create the activities and animations that keep this place alive.”

Several reenactment groups participate on weekends during the summer to show visitors how people lived in the early 1700s, when the windmill was built along the waterfront on the eastern tip of Île Perrot.

“It serves an educative purpose as well. We try to educate people about the history of Quebec, its colonization and the traditions learned from the First Nations at that time,” Bélanger said.

An actual miller is hired to operate the windmill on windy days.

The windmill, which was built in 1705, is the oldest in North America and is one of the two functional windmills among the 18 that still exist in Quebec. The adjacent miller’s house – which features the bedroom and kitchen from that time – can also be visited.