Saint-Donat, Lanaudière, Quebec

Saint- Donat, also Saint -Donat -de- Montcalm, is a village on the lower Saint Lawrence River in the Canadian province of Quebec, which in 2006 had 4374 inhabitants. It lies in the Municipalité régional de comté Matawinie in the region Lanaudière and now lives mainly from tourism, especially by skiers. Your name goes back to Bishop Donatus of Besançon ( † before 660).

History

At the end of the last Ice Age created numerous lakes. Long before European settlement lived here Algonkingruppen from gathering, fishing and hunting. In Saint -Donat, there were hatchets and projectile points that are several thousand years old. After the 17th century Abenaki were added. To Saint -Donat now live no more First Nations. Of them were some place names, such as Ouareau ( where the wind comes ) or Pimbina ( nipimina ).

Already in the 1860s, plans were to colonize the Mantawa Valley, as they sought land for farmers across Canada. In 1866 the first official preliminary investigation took place. To this end, a way of Sainte -Marguerite- du- Lac- Masson was to be built in the river valley. The road, named after the builder Chemin Provost, reached the 1869 Lac Archambault. 1872, Régis Coutu moved on to the site of the later town, which was officially founded in 1874. A little later emerged in the small town, who owned a flour mill and a saw mill, a chapel. A little later joined the Chemin Coutu Saint -Théodore -de- Chertsey with Saint- Donat, the 1881 is already counted 343 inhabitants. However, it was originally planned agriculture quickly, because the soil and climate were not suitable for this purpose.

The first settlers lived generations, similar to the neighboring Innu, by hunting and fishing, in 1869 came the logging, which the Assomption Lumber Co. operation first. In addition, accrued up to five sawmills. 1924, the place was first supplied with electricity. Fernando Coutu built on the lake a small power plant and sell the energy produced to the inhabitants of the place. In 1946, he joined this task from the newly founded Coopérative d' Electricité de Saint- Donat. Joseph Thibault founded a telephone company, which was acquired in 1961 by Bell Canada.

1908 saw the timber technician G. Piché the tourist potential of the located in 1400 m altitude resort. Seminarians and priests had already used during the First World War for recreation. 1917 Lionel Groulx bought a house on Lac Archambault. 1920-1930 resulted in several hotels, 1939, the Jasper in Quebec was explicitly built for skiing, but it was destroyed by fire in 1959.

After the timber industry collapsed in the 1960s, the tourism took over the leading role economically. The place has increasingly become a gateway to the Parc national du Mont- Tremblant. The Société historique de Saint -Donat is primarily concerned with the history of the place.