Cap-Chat is a town in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...

, in the

Regional County Municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM (''french: municipalité régionale de comté, MRC'') is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities. In some older English translations they were called county r ...

of Haute-Gaspésie, and in the administrative region of Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Cap-Chat is found west of

Sainte-Anne-des-Monts Sainte-Anne-des-Monts () is a city in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of the province of Quebec in Canada. Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, a small city between the Chic-Choc Mountains and sea, is on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence river ...

. , Cap-Chat's population is 2,777. In addition to Cap-Chat itself, the town's territory also includes the communities of Cap-Chat-Est, Capucins, and Petit-Fonds.

History

There are two theories about the origin of the town's name. One simply holds that the headland called Cap-Chat bore a likeness to a cat ("chat" in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

). The other theory is a bit more fanciful. According to a local legend, a cat walking along the shore killed and ate various animals, whereupon the "cat fairy" accused him of having eaten her offspring. For his punishment, the cat was turned into stone for ever. It seems most likely, however, that the town's name is a corruption of "

Aymar de Chaste Aymar de Chaste (1514–1603) was a Catholic French admiral during the Franco-Spanish Wars between 1582 and 1598. A gentleman of the King's Chamber, François Aymar (or Aimar) de Cleremont de Chaste served as governor of Dieppe and Arques-la-Bat ...

", who was

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

's lieutenant-general in 1603. The waterfront boardwalk at Cap-Chat has a display of photographs and informative plaques regarding the Second World War Battle of the St. Lawrence between U-Boats and coastal defence ships. Cap-Chat was one of the prime viewing areas for the total solar eclipse of July 10, 1972. Unfortunately, cloudy skies prevented most observers from viewing the total phase of the eclipse. On March 15, 2000, the Municipality of Capucins was amalgamated into the Town of Cap-Chat.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Cap-Chat had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Economy

Cap-Chat has become synonymous with wind energy. There is a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

there containing 76 wind generators in revenue service. Each one of these is a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), but there is also to be seen there one called Éole, which is the world's tallest vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) at 110 m. It is capable of producing 4 MW of power, but has not been in use for more than ten years following damages sustained during a wind storm. Everything that there is to know about wind power at Cap-Chat may be learnt at the interpretative centre at the wind farm. Cap-Chat has other things that are worth seeing, such as the aforesaid cat-shaped headland, and a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

. Those interested in wilderness and spectacular scenery can explore the areas inland from Cap-Chat, where there was once a village called Saint-Octave-de-l'Avenir (which ironically means Saint Octavius of the Future, though it's long in the past now).

Salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

fishing and

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

are other activities available in the Cap-Chat area, as are

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

, horseback riding, and off-road

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

excursions in the back country. In winter, Cap-Chat has a

downhill skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping), w ...

centre, as well as trails for

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

, snowshoeing, and

snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

Images

File:Capchatwindturbines.png, Wind turbines at Cap-Chat File:Cap-chat_032.JPG, Wind farm File:Cap_Chat_-_panoramio.jpg, The village, as seen from the sea File:Phare de Cap-Chat.jpg, Lighthouse File:Arriere pays.jpg, Backcountry

References

External links