Chibougamau () is the largest town in

Nord-du-Québec Nord-du-Québec (; en, Northern Quebec) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With nearly of land area, and very extensive lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsu ...

, central

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. Located on Lake Gilman it has a population of 7,504 people (

2016 Canadian Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

). Chibougamau is surrounded by, but not part of, the local municipality of

Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government (french: Gouvernement régional d’Eeyou Istchee Baie-James, cr, ᐄᔨᔨᐤ ᐊᔅᒌ ᒉᐃᒥᔅ ᐯᐃ ᐊᔅᒌᐤ ᑎᐹᔨᐦᒋᒑᐎᓐ, italic=no ) is a local municipality in the (TE) in ...

. Due to its remoteness from

Lac Saint-Jean Lac Saint-Jean (Canadian French: ) is a large, relatively shallow lake in south-central Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian Highlands. It is situated north of the Saint Lawrence River, into which it drains via the Saguenay River. It covers an area ...

(over south-east) and

Abitibi-Témiscamingue Abitibi-Témiscamingue () is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of and its population was 146,717 peo ...

(over south-west) areas, Chibougamau provides services for a few smaller communities surrounding it (

Mistissini Mistissini ( cr, ᒥᔅᑎᓯᓃ/Mistisinî meaning Big Rock) is a Cree town located in the south-east corner of the largest natural lake in Quebec, Lake Mistassini. The town is inside the boundaries of the Baie-James Municipality and is the ...

Oujé-Bougoumou Oujé-Bougoumou (; cr, ᐆᒉᐳᑯᒨ / Ûcêpukumû, the linguistic basis for the name of the nearby town Chibougamau, which in the Cree language refers to the narrows of a body of water, and was where Cree people gathered seasonally) is th ...

and Chapais) and for the regional resource-based industries. Despite Chibougamau's remoteness, it is only about as far north as

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, and is south of any part of the mainland of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Nearby are Lake Aux Dorés, which is fed by the

Chibougamau River The Chibougamau River flows west in the Chibougamau, then Eeyou Istchee James Bay (municipality) in the administrative region of Nord-du-Québec, Quebec, Canada. From the source, the course of the river successively crosses the townships of: R ...

from the larger

Chibougamau Lake Chibougamau Lake is a freshwater body of the municipality of Chibougamau, in the administrative region of Nord-du-Québec, in province of Quebec, in Canada. The surface of Chibougamau Lake is usually frozen from early November to mid-May, however ...

, after which the town was named. ''Chibougamau'' means "Gathering place" in the

Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...

. The neighbouring

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

village of Oujé-Bougoumou has the same name with a more traditional Cree spelling. The area surrounding Lake Gilman is Obalski Park. Its amenities include a beach, pier, picnic tables, cabins, among others. The many trails allow for hiking, cycling, cross-country skiing, or even snowmobiling through the park's

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

. Access to the town is by Route 167 from Lac Saint-Jean and by Route 113 from

Lebel-sur-Quévillon Lebel-sur-Quévillon is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, located on Route 113 in the Jamésie region. It is located approximately 88 kilometres north of Senneterre and approximately 200 kilometres southwest of Chibougamau. It is surroun ...

. Chibougamau's airport is along Route 113, about halfway to Chapais.

History

The area has long been part of the

territory. It was in the early 17th century that French explorers and traders, including

Charles Albanel Charles Albanel (1616 – 11 January 1696), born in Ardes or Auvergne, was a French missionary explorer in Canada, and a Jesuit priest. Life Charles Albanel entered the Society of Jesus in 1633 at Toulouse. In 1635 he began teaching at various Je ...

in 1671, came to the Lake Chibougamau area. However, no permanent European settlements were established at that time. Only in the late 19th century did the area attract the interest of

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

prospectors. When gold was discovered in 1903, there were periods of intense exploration. Due to difficulty of access, no lasting development took place at that time. Not until 1949 was copper first exploited,St.-Hilaire, p.407. with the opening of a multi-metallic mine in the area, and a permanent community was established in 1952. Chibougamau started out as a

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

but soon after, in 1954, it was incorporated as a municipality. Many mines have exploited the area since. While still thought of as a mining town, Chibougamau is now also the centre of a large

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

and

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

industry. From 1962 to 1988, the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

operated

CFS Chibougamau CFS Chibougamau, or RCAF Station Chibougamau (pre-1967), housed the 10 Radar Squadron (Royal Canadian Air Force). The facility was a military radar installation in Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada, that formed part of the Pinetree Line. Shortly af ...

, a radar station in Chibougamau that was part of the

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North Ame ...

. The complex has now been transformed into a golf complex and an office for a mining company. Since December 2001, the mayor of Chibougamau is also part of the municipal council of Municipality of Baie-James. The city is home to an annual "''Folies frettes''" festival ("Cold Follies") and a

snowmobile 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 ...

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sport ...

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, Chibougamau 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. The median age is 40.8, as opposed to 41.6 for all of Canada. French was the

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

of 92.5% of residents in 2021. The next most common mother tongues were

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

at 3.0%, followed by Cree-Innu languages at 1.6%. 0.9% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.2% who reported both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue. As of 2021,

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

comprised 7.8% of the population and visible minorities contributed 3.9%. The largest visible minority groups in Chibougamau are Black (1.5%), Filipino (1.1%), and Arab (0.8%). The region is home to 555 recent immigrants (i.e. those arriving between 2016 and 2021). In 2021, 67.7% of the population identified as

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, while 22.8% said they had no religious affiliation.

Pentecostals Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

were the largest religious minority, at 1.3% of the population, while

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

were the largest non-Christian religious minority, making up 0.8% of the population. Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: ''(Percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding and multiple responses).''

Education

French-language schools in Chibougamau, past and present, are: *École Bon-Pasteur *École Vatican II *École Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire *École La Porte-du-Nord *École Vinette (closed 1994) *Centre de formation professionnelle de la Baie-James *Centre d'études collégiales Chibougamau The English-language school is MacLean Memorial School. formerly Chibougamau Protestant School. There also used to be a Catholic English-language school called Holy Family School.

Climate

Chibougamau has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfc''), despite being located just south of 50 degrees latitude. Winters are long, cold, and snowy with a January high of and a low of . Summers are warm though short with a July high of and a low of . Overall precipitation is high for a subarctic climate with an average annual precipitation of and of snow per season. Precipitation is significant year round though February through April are drier.

References

Notes

Sources

*St.-Hilaire, Marc. "Chibougamuau", in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', Volume 1, p. 407. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishing, 1988. *

External links

*
Official site
{{Authority control Chibougamau Cities and towns in Quebec Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Incorporated places in Nord-du-Québec James Bay Jamésie