L'Isle-aux-Allumettes 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 ...
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, Canada. The municipality consists primarily of Allumette Island (in French ''Île aux Allumettes''), and also includes Morrison Island, Marcotte Island, and some minor islets, all in 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 ...
north of
Pembroke.
In the past, the island and municipalities have been spelled in French in various ways:
* Isle-des-Allumettes
* L'Île-Allumettes
* Île-aux-Allumettes
Etymology
The name ''Isle-aux-Allumettes'' literally means "Island of Matches", and may refer to a box of
match
A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...
es that was left behind. In 1686,
Chevalier de Troyes wrote about the island: “A Jesuit passing here another time forgot a box of matches which he carried to make a fire. This is why the
Voyageurs
The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...
gave the name “L’Isle-aux-Allumettes”.
Another theory claims that the place was named for the reeds that grew on the island which were used as matches.
Geography
![L'Isle-aux-Allumettes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/L%27Isle-aux-Allumettes.PNG)
Allumette Island is long and wide, making it the largest island within the Ottawa River along its entire course. At this point the Ottawa River has widened into a lake, called Allumette Lake, which is long and has a total surface area of .
The municipality consists mostly of agricultural land. Its population centres are
Chapeau
A chapeau is a flat-topped hat once worn by senior clerics.
In heraldry
In European ecclesiastical heraldry, it is used as a mark of ecclesiastical dignity, especially that of cardinals, where it is called the ''red chapeau''. It is worn over th ...
, Desjardinsville, Demers Centre, and Saint-Joseph.
History
The
Kichesipirini
The Kichesipirini ("People of the Great River", "Island Indians") are an Algonquin indigenous people of Canada. Their traditional homeland and primary village was located on Morrison Island (also called Morrison's Island) in the Ottawa River (whic ...
Algonquins
The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi, ...
first occupied the site in order to maintain control of trade on the Ottawa River. For this reason,
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fre ...
named it ''Isle des Algoumequins'' during his trip of 1613. In 1650, this native population was almost entirely exterminated by the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
.
In his memoirs written during the second half of the 17th century,
Nicolas Perrot
Nicolas Perrot (–1717), a French explorer, fur trader, and diplomat, was one of the first European men to travel in the Upper Mississippi Valley, in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Biography
Nicolas Perrot was born in France between 1641 ...
made mention of the "One-Eyed Man's Island otherwise called Matches Island" ("''Isle du Borgne autrement ditte l'Isle des Allumettes''"). "One-Eyed" was a reference to the disability of
Tessouat
Tessouat (''Anishinaabe'': Tesswehas) ( c. ??? – 1636–1654) was an Algonquin chief from the Kitchesipirini nation ("Kitche"=Great, "sipi"=river, "rini"=people: the people from the great river, the Ottawa River). His nation lived in an a ...
, an Algonquin chief in the region. The name "Allumettes" was first given to the rapids south-east of the island; a map from 1680 refers to these as ''Sault des Allumettes'' (Matches Falls).
It was not until 1818 that Europeans began to settle on the island. They worked mostly as loggers or for the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
which had a fur trading post just upstream at
Fort William. The preferred transport route was still the river, so most families build their homes on the southside of the island where the church of Saint-Alphonse-de-l'Île-aux-Allumettes Parish was built in 1840.
The Île-aux-Allumettes Township was formed in 1847,
and its first mayor was Andrew Whelan.
An intense fire destroyed almost all the buildings in 1853 and, thereafter, the population settled more toward the northern part, on the current site of
Chapeau village.
In 1874, the village of Chapeau separated from the township and became an incorporated municipality,
with Patrick Cunningham as the first mayor.
In 1910, the parish of Saint-Joseph-de-l'Île-aux-Allumettes was established on the eastern part of the island, leading to the formation of the Municipality of L'Isle-aux-Allumettes-Partie-Est in 1920.
On December 30, 1998, the municipality of Chapeau Village and the township municipalities of L'Isle-aux-Allumettes and L'Isle-aux-Allumettes-Part-East were merged into the new Municipality of L'Isle-aux-Allumettes.
Demographics
Population
Language
Mother tongue (2021):
* English as first language: 75.7%
* French as first language: 18.1%
* English and French as first language: 3.6%
* Other as first language: 2.2%
Local government
List of former mayors (since formation of current municipality):
* Jérôme Sallafranque (1998–1999)
* Denzil Spence (1999–2005)
* Brian Adam (2005–2009)
* Winston Sunstrum (2009–2021)
* Corey Spence (2021–present)
See also
*
List of municipalities in Quebec
__FORCETOC__
Quebec is the second-most populous province in Canada with 8,501,833 residents as of 2021 and is the largest in land area at . For statistical purposes, the province is divided into 1,282 census subdivisions, which are m ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isle-aux-Allumettes, Le
Incorporated places in Outaouais
Municipalities in Quebec