Litchfield is a municipality in the

Outaouais Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western Quebec, Canada. It includes the city of Gatineau, the municipality of Val-des-Monts and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the Ottawa ...

region, part of the

Pontiac Regional County Municipality Pontiac (french: municipalité régionale de comté de Pontiac) is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. Campbell's Bay is the county seat. It should not be confused with the municipality of Pontiac, which is ...

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. It is located on the shores of the eastern channel of the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

Calumet Island Calumet Island is an island on the St. Lawrence River, located in the Town of Clayton in Jefferson County, New York. The island formerly featured one of the earliest examples of the large castles built in the Thousand Islands region during t ...

. Its settlements include Vinton (once known as St-Elizabeth-de-Franktown) and Goldwin. Notable lakes include Litchfield, Leslie, and Ours (Bear) Lakes.

History

Litchfield Township (spelled "Licthfield" on the Gale and Duberger map of 1795) was officially created in 1834. It was probably named after

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

, an English town in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, north of Birmingham. On November 20, 1846, the township was incorporated with Alfred Lancaster as its first mayor. It was abolished the next year and became part of the Ottawa County Municipality. It was reestablished in 1855. In 1863, the Municipality of

Portage-du-Fort Portage-du-Fort is a village municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in the southwest corner of the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The village lies across the Ottawa River from Chenaux, Ontario and Horton, Ontario. At Por ...

Village separated from Litchfield's territory, followed by Bryson in 1873, and by Campbell's Bay in 1904. Because Bryson was located in the narrowest part of the municipality, between

L'Île-du-Grand-Calumet L'Île-du-Grand-Calumet is a municipality in the Outaouais region, part of the Pontiac Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. The municipality consists primarily of Calumet Island (also Grand Calumet Island; in French ''Île du Grand Calum ...

and Clarendon, it separated the municipality's territory in two. In 1964, the Pontiac County Council (now Pontiac MRC) built its headquarters in Litchfield on

Quebec Route 148 Route 148 is an east-west highway in Quebec, Canada. It runs from junction of Autoroute 13 and Autoroute 440 in Laval in the Montreal region to the Ontario-Quebec border in L'Isle-aux-Allumettes in western Quebec. For most of its length, Route ...

at the edge of Campbell's Bay. On November 6, 2004, the Township Municipality of Litchfield changed its status to become the Municipality of Litchfield.

Demographics

Population

Language

Mother tongue (2021): * English as first language: 64.0% * French as first language: 33.0% * English and French as first language: 3.0% * Other languages: 1.0%

Local government

List of former mayors: *Michael McCrank (2001–2013) *Colleen Larivière (2013–present)

References

External links

{{authority control Incorporated places in Outaouais Municipalities in Quebec