45-year-old scars in Meech Creek Valley

It’s been 45 years since the Quebec government expropriated the Miquets’ Pine Road home in the Meech Creek Valley, and today the only signs of life are weeds growing from the gutters, moss growing on the shingles, a chipmunk skittering across the porch and a bird nest atop an open window.

Claire Miquet and her father, Jean Miquet, in front of their old Meech Creek Valley home that they left in 1981 and has since fallen into disrepair. Hunter Cresswell photo

Between 1966, when the Miquet family moved in, and 1981, when they moved out after renting the home following the expropriation, the family of five filled that red brick, five bedroom farmhouse with life.