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Paul Chiasson

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http://www.islandofsevencities.com

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August 2015

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I was raised on Cape Breton Island, the small island that pivots off the northeastern tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula on Canada’s east coast. My father’s family arrived in Nova Scotia in the middle of the seventeenth century, one of the original Acadian families who first settled the region, so even as a young child I became fascinated by the island’s history. On long walks in the forest with my grandfather, I remember finding old grave markers of our ancestors in seemingly forgotten graveyards. My family would sometimes picnic on grassy fields along the coast that were still littered with the stone ruins of once grand eighteenth century buildings which had been built by the French when Cape Breton served as their main fortress in the Amer I was raised on Cape Breton Island, the small island that pivots off the northeastern tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula on Canada’s east coast. My father’s family arrived in Nova Scotia in the middle of the seventeenth century, one of the original Acadian families who first settled the region, so even as a young child I became fascinated by the island’s history. On long walks in the forest with my grandfather, I remember finding old grave markers of our ancestors in seemingly forgotten graveyards. My family would sometimes picnic on grassy fields along the coast that were still littered with the stone ruins of once grand eighteenth century buildings which had been built by the French when Cape Breton served as their main fortress in the Americas, and often in the morning I would watch fishermen unload their day’s catch on the wharf, the way visiting European fishing boats had done every summer since the early sixteenth century. The island is filled with such stories, so very early in my life I was made aware of the island’s multi-layered and often mysterious past.

I left the island to attend university, moving first to Halifax and the Technical University of Nova Scotia for an undergraduate degree and then to Yale for a graduate degree in architecture. Over the next several decades I travelled, lived, worked and taught in Canada, the United States and Europe. Architecture continued to be my first love, but my interest in the profession was drawn consistently to the study of architectural theory and history, to the stories that buildings are able communicate in their unique and profound way.

That is why I have come back to the fascinating early history of Cape Breton Island. There are ruins of built works on the island which suggest there may be a long forgotten history here. Traces of this ancient history can still be found in the legends told by the Mi’kmaq, the aboriginal people of the region, and in reports and maps describing the island and its unusual early visitors, and in the ruins of walls and stone platforms which have never been fully understood.

I now live in Toronto where I research and write about Cape Breton’s lost history and the stories that continue to be remembered in the island’s ancient legends, recorded in its early documents and written in its ruins.
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what do you think of those guys doing digging on Oak Island? How far is that from Cape Breton?

Paul Chiasson Many thanks for your question. Oak Island is about 350 kilometers from Cape Breton. The Oak Island story has been a mystery in this region for generat…moreMany thanks for your question. Oak Island is about 350 kilometers from Cape Breton. The Oak Island story has been a mystery in this region for generations, and like most people I look forward to some answers to the many questions the site raises. If there really is some kind of ancient treasure buried on the island and if some hard facts could be established through this modern investigation, it would add greatly to the history of the entire continent. I am excited about what might happen.(less)

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Paul, great book!! I picked it up at Costco--then I was given another copy at my birthday! I do a bit of publishing of old obscure works using Lulu. The price of the paperback is remarkable because you have added all the reference notes, a bibliography and an index.The index is well done; the science involved in indexing is very interesting and good results are usually costly. How did you keep costs down?

Paul Chiasson Many thanks for reading the book, for posting your comments, and for your question regarding the indexing. To keep costs down I did the indexing mysel…moreMany thanks for reading the book, for posting your comments, and for your question regarding the indexing. To keep costs down I did the indexing myself, and even though I knew the material well, I soon discovered that indexing written history can be very time consuming. However, building an index becomes fascinating if viewed as a challenge designed to test your skills of logic and organization. While reading the final edit of the manuscript, I made a list of all the names, events, and categories that seemed critical to the telling of the story. This initial list of subject headings and sub-headings, cross-referenced where necessary, formed the foundation for the rest of the work. My productivity increased once this solid base was established. I added and subtracted where needed and then skimmed through the manuscript several times to make sure nothing was left out. Once the list of subject headings is defined, most word processing programs will help you find their locations in the text, but no program will find a subject when it is only alluded to but not specifically named. That takes one last read through. Understood in this way, as a complex puzzle that needs to be solved efficiently, the task becomes remarkably rewarding.(less)

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Average rating: 3.72 · 334 ratings · 71 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered North America 3.71 avg rating — 306 ratings — published 2006 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Written in the Ruins: Cape Breton Island’s Second pre-Columbian Chinese Settlement 3.75 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2016 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Island of Seven Cities Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered North America 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Island of Seven Cities: Where The Chinese Settled When They Discovered America 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discoverd America. by Paul Chiasson (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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and fierce rains never last all day.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

tags: difficulties-of-life

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Take great care over words, treasure them.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

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“A sage traveling all day
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“For things sometimes lead and sometimes follow,
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sometimes kill and sometimes die.”
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“What calamity is greater than no contentment,
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