Madawaska County (2016 population 32,741), also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle", is located in northwestern

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada. Over 90% of the county's population speaks French. Its

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

population are known as "

Brayon Brayons, also called Madawaskayens, are a francophone people inhabiting the area in and around Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada, including some parts of northern Maine. In French, they are called or feminine as in ''Brayon culture'', o ...

s." Forestry is the major industry in the county.

History

The first inhabitants of what is now called Madawaska County were the

Maliseet The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...

Wolastoqiyik The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...

, who occupied and used the land along the Saint John River Valley north to the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

and south to the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

. There is debate concerning the true origin of the word "Madawaska". The earliest settlers were from Quebec. The area was the focus of the bloodless

Aroostook War The Aroostook War (sometimes called the Pork and Beans WarLe Duc, Thomas (1947). The Maine Frontier and the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. ''The American Historical Review'' Vol. 53, No. 1 (Oct., 1947), pp. 30–41), or the Madawaska War, wa ...

, a border dispute led by businessman and political activist John Baker. The earliest settlers of the Upper Saint John River Valley can be clearly verified with and The second link displays census results taken in 1820 of the Madawaska region where most families had originated from Quebec.

Census subdivision The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...
s

Communities

There are ten municipalities within Madawaska County (listed by 2016 population):

First Nations

There is one First Nations reserve in Madawaska County (listed by 2016 population):

Parishes

The county is subdivided into fourteen parishes (listed by 2016 population):

Demographics

As a

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

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 ...

, Madawaska County 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.

Language

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county limits:Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas *Highways ** ** *Principal Routes ** ** *Secondary Routes: ** ** *External Routes: ** US 1

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

Quebec Autoroute 85 (TCH) ** Qc289

Quebec Route 289 Route 289 is a two-lane north/south highway on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of eastern Quebec, Canada. Its northern terminus is in Saint-André-de-Kamouraska at the junction of Route 132 and the sout ...

Protected areas and attractions

Notable people

References

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