Baie-Johan-Beetz is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and village in the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (, ; ; land area ) is the second-largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec. It covers much of the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence past Tadous ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located some east of

Havre-Saint-Pierre Havre-Saint-Pierre is a town on Pointe-aux-Esquimaux, which is on the Quebec north shore (Côte-Nord) of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. Located along Route 138 some east of Sept-Îles, it is the largest town and seat of the Minganie RCM, ...

. It has the lowest population of all incorporated places in the Côte-Nord region.

History

Joseph Tanguay, originally from Berthier, settled at the

Little Watshishou River The Little Watshishou River (french: Petite rivière Watshishou) is a salmon river in the east of the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. Location The Little Watshishou River originates in Lake Gallienne, and flows southwest to enter the Gulf of ...

in 1854. Tanguay and his sons fished mostly for salmon on the Piashti,

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

, Petite Watshishou, Watshishou and Quetachou rivers. In 1862 Tanguay moved to Baie Piashti. Other early settlers came from the

Magdalen Islands The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...

. The place was originally identified as "Piastre Bay", from the Innu expression ''piashite-pets'', meaning "there where the water passes over/on top", or possibly originating from the word ''piashtibé'', meaning "dry bay" or "where the water rises", which is a reference to the local bay that during low tide runs dry. The bay's name was spelled in a variety of ways, including Piashti Bay, Pillage Bay, Baie-de-Pillage, Piastibe, Piashte Bay, and Piestebé. Perhaps for this reason, its residents expressed a desire to change the village's name to Baie-Johan-Beetz in 1910. Johan Beetz (1874-1949) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

naturalist, who lived in the Bay from 1897 to 1922. He had moved there to breed fur animals, particularly foxes, and built a luxurious manor that residents today call ''le château'' (the castle). The bay was renamed in 1914, but the name was not officially adopted until 1965 when the place was incorporated. In 1996,

Highway 138 Highway 138 may refer to: Canada * Ontario Highway 138 * Prince Edward Island Route 138 * Quebec Route 138 Costa Rica * National Route 138 India * National Highway 138 (India) Japan * Japan National Route 138 * Fukuoka Prefectural R ...

was extended to Baie-Johan-Beetz, linking it to the municipality of Havre-Saint-Pierre and thereby breaking its isolation.

Demographics

Population

Language

Climate

Transports

The city is served by the Baie-Johan-Beetz Seaplane Base (SPB) .

References

Sources

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{{Authority control Municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Côte-Nord