The rain was heavy over Quebec City on Sept. 18, 1889.
For hours, it fell and turned alleys into muddy bogs and caused more than a few residents to place pots under leaking roofs.
The deluge fell over the impressive Quebec Citadel, a defensive fortification on Cap Diamant built decades earlier to protect against American attack.
The downpour formed puddles, which turned into small rivers rushing towards the sharp edge of the cape’s cliffside.
The drain meant to divert water was clogged due to neglect.
For decades, during every rainstorm the water instead wore the rock of the cliff down.
Get enough water, and you can move mountains.
And that is what happened.
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and today I’m sharing the tragic story of the Cap Diamant rockslide.
But first, Journey with me to a time when great ice sheets covered Canada.
These one-kilometre-tall behemoths towered for thousands of years, reshaping the land at will until about 13,000 years ago when they began to melt, and retreated to the Arctic, unearthing land that had not seen light in tens of thousands of years.
As the ice melted, great torrents of water moved over the countryside, filling every low-land area of the continent.
In present day St. Lawrence River, the great Champlain Sea formed, drowning 55,000 square kilometres from Quebec City to Brockville, Ontario.
The sea existed for two thousand years and became a haven for many marine species including whales.
The land underneath was full of a sediment known as Leda marine clays which is like rock flour formed by glacial abrasion.
Over centuries, parts of it were dissolved by the salt water of the Champlain Sea.
Without the weight of the ice sheets pushing down, the ground began to rebound upwards and year after the Champlain Sea grew smaller.
The sea disappeared around 10,000 years ago, leaving just the St. Lawrence River as a faint memory of what it once was.
It also left behind clay fissures in the land created by the dissolving salt water.
Called sensitive soils, these voids can make the land so unstable that construction, rain, even traffic can result in small earthquakes and landslides.
But…with the bad, comes some good.
Sensitive soils are considered the best for farming because of the high level of nutrients.
Where there is good soil, there are humans.
The Indigenous Peoples arrived in the St. Lawrence River area ten millennia ago and found it to be abundant.
Over time, the Haudenosaunee had a village and grew crops in the nutrient rich soil.
Known as Stadacona, the settlement was built below the landmass that would become known as Cap Diamont.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier arrived at the village and met Chief Donnacona and left soon after.
He returned in 1535 and recorded the name of the surrounding land as Kanata.
That was actually the Haudenosaunee word for village or settlement.
The word Kanata would eventually become Canada.
Cartier returned in 1542 to find the village abandoned.
While exploring the overlooking cliff, he stumbled upon what he believed to be diamonds.
He named the cliff Cap Diamant, or Cape Diamond.
The diamonds turned out to be quartz, and completely worthless.
But the name stuck.
On July 3, 1608, Samuel de Champlain built a fort called l’habitation at the foot of Cap Diamant where Stadacona once stood.
The settlement grew over the years and became one of the oldest European settlements in North America — you might know it as Quebec City.
On Cap Diamant, various small fortifications were built over the decades, but a full fort was deemed too costly.
After Louisbourg on Ile-Royale, now known as Cape Breton Island, fell to the British in 1745, the government of New France decided to build wooden battlements on Cap Diamant in case of an attack by the English.
But it was not enough to protect the city on Sept. 13, 1759, when Quebec City was captured by the British at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Four years later, New France ceased to exist when the Treaty of Paris ceded the territory to Great Britain.
The British didn’t upgrade defences on the cliff except for a small wooden fort and the Americans took advantage of it.
They attacked Quebec City during the American Revolutionary War but were not successful in their invasion and after a long siege they were forced to retreat.
Tensions between the United Kingdom and Americans were high at the start of the 19th century, and work began on a large and formidable fort.
The present star-shaped fort, the Citadel, sits on Cap Diamant and was built between 1820 and 1850.
It was completed just in time for Quebec City to never see another attack again.
But another secret danger lurked just below the surface.
The construction and weight of the Citadel caused parts of Cap Diamant to become unstable.
To make matters worse, a drain built in 1830 t malfunctioned, diverting water into the cliffside rather than away from it.
It would only be a matter of time before disaster struck.
A quick note before I continue.
Throughout this next part of the story, I will be sharing stories of victims and survivors however it was common in newspapers at the time to omit women, so I am unable to provide all accounts in this episode.
On May 17, 1841, heavy rainfall blanketed Quebec City.
At the citadel, a sentry stood at the gate of the Queen’s Stores, guarding against an attack that would never come.
Suddenly, he felt the ground shake and saw Cap Diamant shake loose.
By the time he was able to sound any alarm, 75 metres of rock broke off t and plummeted to the ground below.
Champlain Street, which ran along the base of Cap Diamant, had nine homes crushed by rocks, leaving 32 dead and 32 injured.
The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“At the time of the accident happening, a heavy rain was falling, and everyone not forced to go abroad was within doors.”
Within minutes, people rushed to the scene to help rescue survivors.
The Montreal Gazette reported,
“Though their efforts were attended with some success, a frightful catalogue of human suffering presented itself in view.”
Mrs. Considine was away from home and was the only member of her family not injured in the slide. While several of her children survived, one son and her husband Jack died below the rubble.
The Williams home saw five members die while the Connors whole family was killed, all nine members died.
The house of the Roy family was thrown into the street, Vital Roy, his wife, a maid, and an apprentice boy were all uninjured while the baby was found in a collapsed chimney, only slightly injured.
After this major slide, citizens petitioned the government to do something to mitigate future risk.
On July 7, 1842, Major Cole, identified as an engineer stationed at the Citadel, wrote to Lord Frederick Paulet, a senior British Army officer in the city.
Quote,
“I should advise that about 300 yards beyond the slip be scarped and that the face be carefully drained.” end quote.
A week later, the Quebec City road inspector, J. Hamel, wrote Mayor René-Édouard Caron advising that parts of the cliff should be removed and reshaped to prevent another disaster.
If you’re a long-time listener, you know governments are slow to change if at all.
On July 7, 1848, five full years to the day since Major Cole first advised removing part of the cliff, J. Hamel was told by the city to investigate the cliff’s safety.
He found deep fissures with rocks overhanging by two to 2.8 metres at a height of 17 metres above ground and told the government there was a serious risk of another slide.
He submitted his report and…silence[1]
On July 14, 1852, an intense storm hit Quebec City and three rock slides off Cap Diamant destroyed one house and killed nine people.
Still, the government did nothing.
Other than pass the blame.
The municipal government thought the provincial government responsible, and the provincial government said the onus was on the municipal government.
Two decades after J. Hamel said that there was a serious risk of slides; he wrote another report, On Dec. 2, 1864, he stated that there was still a danger of another rockslide over Champlain Street.
Another decade of inaction followed until Feb. 3, 1875, when part of Cap Diamant broke off in a heavy rain, killing eight people below.
It took three slides in 30 years, which took the lives of nearly 50 people, for the government to put measures in place to deal with the problem… as cheaply as possible.
Fissures were filled with cement, while unstable blocks of rock on the cliff were held together by chains.
A wall was also erected at the base of the cliff to protect houses.
The problem is cement is porous.
In the summer, water gets in and in the winter, it freezes and expands creating cracks and increasing the size of the cement in a crevasse.
All the cement did in the rock fissures exasperated the problem making fissures bigger and more unstable.
The chains and the protection wall did help but these measures were far from a permanent solution to the problem.
In 1877, the federal government took over the Citadel from the British government.
A federal engineer did an inspection that year and discovered the drain built in 1830 was completely clogged, allowing water to escape and loosen the earth around it.
Despite the risk, nothing was done.
In the late-1870s, J. Hamel retired without having convinced the municipal or federal government to do anything substantial to protect the residents of Champlain Street.
Charles Baillarge, a civil engineer, was hired by the city.
He submitted a report in January 1880 highlighting the fissures and overhangs of the cliff face.
He noted some of these fissures were 35 metres deep and one metre wide and that caused him to worry… quote,
“My first impression was on viewing the cliff either from above or below that it might go boldly over, burying in its ruins the houses on both sides of the street.”
Like Hamel before him, Baillarge recommended removing rocks and installing buttresses to secure the cliff.
He added that walls 50 to 80 feet high and six to seven feet thick were needed at the base of the cliff.
The cost would be $27,000, a small fortune for the time.
Baillarge was so concerned about another landslide that he worked all night to finish his report to submit it to the government quickly hoping they would immediately remedy the issue.
Maybe Baillarge was too naïve or optimistic, but the government took his report and did the bare minimum once again.
Some houses on one part of the street were removed, and a small retaining wall was added.
The ineptitude of municipal governments was no match for the forces of nature and soon Cap Diamant would refuse to be ignored.
On Sept. 19, 1889, Quebec City was drenched by heavy rain.
Over the course of two days, 850 square metres of water went into fissures on Cap Diamant, putting 46,000 tons of pressure against the cracks.
With each drop of water pressure built, Cap Diamant strained to hold itself together.
Every few minutes, small bits of rocks fell onto the properties below.
And when it could hold together no more, Cap Diamant broke.
Immediately, 36,000 tonnes of debris fell on the exact spot Baillarge predicted the cliff would collapse in his report.
In the rockslide’s path were 28 homes along Champlain Street.
The small retaining walls built by the city were smashed to bits as rocks tumbled down the street.
George Hayden was talking with his friend Tom Nolan when he saw small stones falling. He said it was a bad sign and they suddenly saw larger rocks Nolan ran home.
Hayden said,
“Everything seemed to be moving. The fence knocked against me. I felt myself carried away and the next thing I knew the fence was lying on top of me.”
Steve Burke was standing outside when a stone hit him in the chest. He lived, but his wife and two children died.
Miss O’Neill said she was standing in her home and described the start of the rockslide as stones falling from heaven. Quote
“I thought it was a cyclone and ran for my life, but the walls seemed to move, and the ceiling descended. That was all I knew till after I had been rescued.”
One unnamed young woman was not as lucky.
She was unwinding cotton in her home when the slide hit.
She was still holding the cotton when her body was recovered from the debris.
Dennis Barrigan survived the rocks hitting his home, but he broke his back and both of his arms in the slide.
Mrs. Ready heard the slide coming and shielded her newborn baby with her own body. She died, but her baby survived.
Harry Samson was at work. He lost his wife and daughter in the disaster. He said,
“My poor wife, yesterday so full of life, so happy and today it was all over in a moment.”
As the rocks settled, silence fell over the area. Buried under 24 metres of rubble, were 100 people.
The Ottawa Daily Citizen wrote,
“What would have required all the ingenuity of science, all the combined energy of a host of workers, and taxed the industry of an army of experts, nature accomplished in the twinkling of an eye.”
Faint cries for help could be heard as locals rushed to dig people out.
News quickly spread of the disaster beyond Quebec City limits. Soldiers from B Company, stationed in Montreal, heard the call for help and left immediately to aid in the rescue.
Engineers from the Royal Military College in Kingston also arrived to assist and within hours, over 200 people were digging through the rubble.
In the wreckage of one home, rescuers could hear the voice of Ida Black, a six-year-old girl.
She had been playing the piano when rocks rained on her home.
She talked with rescuers for four hours as they dug and as they got closer, she told them to be careful and not break her piano.
When she was rescued, she was taken to the hospital where her mother was already being treated.
Michael Bradley dug in the wreckage of his home. He had been away when the rockslide happened, and he believed his entire family had been killed. His wife was but his five-year-old daughter was found injured.
The Halifax Herald wrote,
“His joy was indescribable. He kissed and patted the poor little body.”
When an unnamed young boy in the Power family was rescued but begged to be returned to the body of his dead mother.
It seemed like the tragedy was endless.
As people dug through the rubble, they heard two men yelling.
Rescuers believe they were Tom Nolan and Joe Kemp.
For eight hours rescuers dug into the debris, but the men said one of them had their head pinned by a rock.
. Eventually, a hole was created big enough for rescuer Francis Beauchamp to crawl through.
He went through the small hole and wormed his way following the men’s voices. As he got close to one of them, a rock blocked his path.
Needing to find another way, he turned around just as debris fell around him.
He attempted to go another way but found himself blocked by another rock. That’s when he found the body of a young woman.
He wasn’t relieved however, because Beauchamp was now also tramped.
For an hour rescuers dug into the earth to reach him. Following Beauchamp’s rescue, neither Nolan nor Kemp were heard from again.
Their bodies were found later.
It is believed that when Beauchamp got trapped the shift in the rubble crushed the two men waiting for salvation.
Nolan’s wife was also killed. They had only been married a few weeks when the landslide claimed their future.
A nearby shipping office was turned into a temporary morgue.
Quebec Premier Honore Mercier arrived soon after and the sight of six dead children brought him to tears.
He said,
“Mon Dieu, c’est plus terrible.”
The landslide had claimed over 40 people.
Men were put on watch to keep the rats away from the bodies in the morgue.
The following day, 600 men worked to clear away the rubble from the road.
Gunpowder was used to blast larger rocks and clear a path.
That same day, Quebec City Council held an emergency meeting and Councillor Thomas McGreevy immediately levied blame against the federal government.
He believed the blame lied with the malfunctioning drain that he claimed was not fixed by the federal government at the citadel.
Council also voted to provide $2,500 to the survivors of the disaster.
One person not blaming the federal government was civil engineer Charles Baillarge.
He told the Montreal Gazette that he had given recommendations to the city nearly a decade earlier to prevent the type of disaster that hit the city on Sept. 19, 1889.
He said,
“These measures were not taken, and the result was Wednesday’s disaster.”
He repeated that warnings had either been ignored or dealt with in the simplest and cheapest way possible.
As governments squabbled…a funeral procession for 15 hearses was attended by 700 people including the mayor and city council four days after the landslide.
.
On Sept. 28, 1889, an inquest into the disaster ruled that it was a result of gross and culpable negligence on the part of the federal government for not dealing with the blocked drainage pipe when it was discovered.
Quebec City took the federal government to court over the matter. The city wanted compensation for the $100,000 in damages caused by the disaster.
On Oct. 9, 1894, the case reached the Supreme Court of Canada where, three judges voted against and two voted in favour of the city.
In their ruling, the Supreme Court stated that there was no evidence of neglect from officers in charge at the citadel, nor by the federal government.
After this disaster, were there efforts to finally make the cliffside safer?
The short answer?
No.
For the next seventy years there were occasional small slides but nothing on the level seen in 1889 and no fatalities.
But it was only a matter of time.
Finally, in1960 new measures were put into place to prevent future disasters on Cap Diamant.
New drainage lines were installed at the citadel to divert rainwater away from the cliff to a safer area.
On top of that, 59 anchor bolts were installed to stabilize the cliff.
There is still a risk that something could happen, but for the past six decades nothing has, which is good news for the many residents who still live in that area.
let’s make sure we pause and give literal silence
