[4] Home to the Mi'gmaq Nation for centuries, the Restigouche watershed is a land of many mountains and unspoiled vistas, as well as significant timber resources.

The establishment of the colony of New Brunswick for United Empire Loyalists refugees following the American Revolutionary War saw modest influx of several families to the area but the most significant impact came from Scottish settlers following the Highland Clearances.

Fly fishing/angling has become a significant source of revenue for many outfitters in the region and a 55-kilometre (34 mi) of the Restigouche has been designated part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System.

[5] For more than 100 years, the world's wealthiest people have come to enjoy the river's tranquil beauty and perfect canoeing conditions to fish for salmon.

Among the VIPs who have been guests at the river's fishing lodges include the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, Hubert Humphrey, Ted Williams, Lord Beaverbrook, Bing Crosby, Louis St. Laurent, Maurice Richard, Norman Schwarzkopf, George H. W. Bush, and Brian Mulroney, to name but a few.

The Canadian business elite outside of the Maritimes have not been nearly as enamoured with the river as Americans, although several prominent Toronto families including the Eatons did have a presence.

This is largely due to the relative proximity of the river to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, which helped make the region a small summer colony.

Early issues with over-fishing by new arrivals to the area led to the implementation, in 1824, of one of the earliest examples of conservation laws in North America.

[8] The Ristigouche and its Salmon Fishing With a Chapter on Angling Literature is a limited-edition book about the Restigouche River, written by Dean Sage and published by David Douglas in Edinburgh in 1888.