Dolbeau-Mistassini is a town in northern
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, at the confluence of the
Mistassibi River
The Mistassibi River is a river in central Quebec, Canada. It is long and has a drainage basin of . Its source is an area with unnamed lakes about east of Canso Bay of Lake Albanel, eastern neighbor of Lake Mistassini.
The name ''Mistassibi'' ...
, Riviere aux Rats and the Mistassini River, on
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 are ...
. Dolbeau-Mistassini is in the
Maria-Chapdelaine Regional County Municipality
Maria-Chapdelaine is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is in Dolbeau-Mistassini.
It runs from Lac Saint-Jean in the south to the deep interior of northern Quebec in the north.
Subd ...
and is the commercial hub of Lac-St-Jean with big stores and shopping centres.
The city was formed in 1997 through the amalgamation of the cities of Dolbeau and Mistassini. Dolbeau is located on the right (west) bank of the Mistassini River, in the geographic township of Parent (not in the adjacent Dolbeau Township). The town of Mistassini is on the left (east) bank of the Mistassini River at the confluence with the Mistassibi River, directly opposite Dolbeau.
History
The first settler in Mistassini may have been François Gaudreault in 1884. But credit is given to
Trappists
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...
for founding the town, an exceptional case in Quebec. In 1892, the Trappists of
Oka
Oka or OKA may refer to:
Cars
* Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ
* OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA
Military
* 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...
were granted of land between the Mistassini and Mistassibi Rivers by the government of
Charles Boucher de Boucherville
Sir Charles-Eugène-Napoléon Boucher de Boucherville (May 4, 1822 – September 10, 1915) was a Canadian politician and doctor. He twice served as the premier of Quebec.
Personal life
Boucher was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Descended ...
. They first settled at the mouth of the Mistassibi then on the shores of Lac Saint-Jean. In 1895, the Parish of Saint-Michel-de-Mistassini was founded, and two years later, it was incorporated as a municipality.
In 1930, the town centre of Saint-Michel-de-Mistassini separated from the municipality to form the Village Municipality of Mistassini. During the construction of the Chute-des-Passes Dam on the
Peribonka River
The Peribonka River (French: ''Rivière Péribonka'') is a river emptying in Sainte-Monique, in Lac-Saint-Jean-Est Regional County Municipality, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area in Quebec, Canada. It is long and drains an area of . It drains ...
in 1944, it experienced commercial growth and gained city status in 1947. In 1976, the Municipality of Saint-Michel-de-Mistassini and the Village Municipality of Mistassini were merged again to form the City of Mistassini.
As for Dolbeau, it was founded in 1926 by Swedish-born industrialist Emil Andrew Wallberg and his industrial German-born partner John Stadler who established there the Lake Saint John Power and Paper Co. paper mill. The town, incorporated in 1927, was named after
Jean Dolbeau Jean Dolbeau, O.M.R., (12 March 1586 – 9 June 1652) was a Recollect friar, one of the four Recollects who were the first Catholic missionaries to northern New France, present day Canada. Dolbeau-Mistassini in Quebec is named for him.
Life
Jean ...
(1586–1652),
Récollet
The Recollects (french: Récollets) were a French reform branch of the Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects took vows of poverty and devoted their lives to prayer, penance, and spirit ...
missionary in the Tadoussac and Lac Saint-Jean area from 1615 to 1617 and from 1618 to 1620.
On December 17, 1997, the cities of Dolbeau and Mistassini were merged to form the City of Dolbeau-Mistassini.
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 ...
, Dolbeau-Mistassini 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.
In 2021, the median age was 50.8, 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 99.0% 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 0.3%, followed by
Haitian Creole
Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
at 0.2%. 0.3% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.1% 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 6.5% of the population, most of whom were
Métis
The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
, and visible minorities contributed 1.4%. The largest visible minority groups in Dolbeau-Mistassini are Black (0.8%), Arab (0.2%), and Latin American (0.2%). The area is home to 35 recent immigrants (i.e. those arriving between 2016 and 2021), who comprise about 0.3% of the total population. 15 of them come from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
In 2021, 79.1% 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 ...
, a 16.2% decrease from 2011, while 13.2% said they had no religious affiliation.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
were the largest religious minority, making up 0.5% of the population.
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 0.2% 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).''
Population trend:
[Statistics Canada: ]1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
, 2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
, 2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, 2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
census
* Population in 2011: 14,384 (2006 to 2011 population change: -1.1%)
* Population in 2006: 14,546
* Population in 2001: 14,879
* Population total in 1996: 15,214
** Dolbeau (''ville''): 8,310
** Mistassini (''ville''): 6,904
* Population in 1991:
** Dolbeau (''ville''): 8,181
** Mistassini (''ville''): 6,842
Industry
The main source of employment in Dolbeau is a
paper mill
A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...
factory. In June 2009, the mill was shut down but has since been restarted in August 2012. It is owned by
Resolute Forest Products
Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-headquartered pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Resolute was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater ...
.
The environmental organization, SGE, outfits the town with town bicycles from St. Jean Baptiste to September. The green bicycles belong to the town so you can hop on one where ever and leave it for someone else somewhere else.
Tourism
![Dolbeau-Mistassini 7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Dolbeau-Mistassini_7.JPG)
The following are the attractions in Dolbeau-Mistassini:
*Do-Mi-Ski: local ski resort
*Festival Western
*Downtown Beaches and Beaches on the Lac-St-Jean shores
*
Dolbeau-Saint-Félicien Airport
Dolbeau-Saint-Félicien Airport ''Aéroport Dolbeau-St-Félicien'', is located southwest of Dolbeau-Mistassini, Quebec, Canada.
The airport had scheduled passenger airline service in the past: in 1985, Nordair was operating nonstop flights to ...
*Entrance of the Great Quebec north for hunting and fishing
*
Rafting
Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...
spots on the Mistassibi
*Festival of Stories (told at night) for the whole summer
*Festival du bleuet August
Blueberry Festival
A symbol of the Lac Saint-Jean region, the
blueberry
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...
is celebrated during this festival every year between August 3 and 7. Festivities include exhibitions, animation, performances, giant games, blueberry contests, a parade by night, and the baking of a giant blueberry pie. It is celebrated in August, the month which blueberries are picked up in blueberry fields.
Climate
Mistassini has a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Dfb'') with mild summers and cold winters. It has less of an influence of the nearby lake than
Roberval and as such has higher
diurnal temperature variation
In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day.
Temperature lag
Temperature lag is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation: peak d ...
. In winter, when lake moderation disappears through it freezing over, average lows fall to . March remains a winter month as spring is delayed until April, when a rapid warmup ensues that brings summer average highs to about .
References
External links
*
Official Site*
Festival du bleuet de Dolbeau-Mistassini(Annual blueberry festival)
Festival 10 jours Western
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Quebec
Populated places established in 1997