Poutrincourt Lake is a freshwater body of the unorganized territory of

Lac-Ashuapmushuan, Quebec Lac-Ashuapmushuan is an unorganized territory in the Canadian province of Quebec, Canada, located in the regional county municipality of Le Domaine-du-Roy. The region had a population of 140 as of the Canada 2021 Census, and covered a land a ...

, in the western part of the

Regional County Municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM (''french: municipalité régionale de comté, MRC'') is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities. In some older English translations they were called county r ...

(MRC)

Le Domaine-du-Roy Le Domaine-du-Roy ''(The King's Domain)'' is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is in Roberval, and it is named for the King of France, who owned the land at the time of the coloniz ...

, in the administrative region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

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 ...

, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. This lake extends in the townships of Poutrincourt and Bouteroue. It is located west of the Ashuapmushuan Wildlife Reserve. Forestry is the main economic activity of the sector. Recreational tourism activities come second. The western part of the lake Poutrincourt hydrographic slope is accessible via the forest road R0223 (east–west direction) which passes to the north and a road branch on the east side of the lake. The forest road route 167 passes north-east of

Nicabau Lake Nicabau Lake is a freshwater body of the unorganized territory of Lac-Ashuapmushuan, Quebec, in the western part of Regional County Municipality (MRC) Le Domaine-du-Roy, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean administrative region, in the province of Que ...

, connecting

Chibougamau Chibougamau () is the largest town in Nord-du-Québec, central Quebec, Canada. Located on Lake Gilman it has a population of 7,504 people (2016 Canadian Census). Chibougamau is surrounded by, but not part of, the local municipality of Eeyou Istc ...

Saint-Félicien, Quebec Saint-Félicien is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec. The town is located within the Le Domaine-du-Roy Regional County Municipality in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. Its population as of 2021 is 10,089. Geography The municipality is ...

. The

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

runs along this road. The surface of Poutrincourt Lake is usually frozen from early November to mid-May, however, safe ice circulation is generally from mid-November to mid-April.

Geography

Toponymy

Formerly, according to various sources, this body of water was designated "Lake Ascatiche", "Lake Ascatscie", "Lake Askatiche", "Lake Askitichi", "Lake Scatsi" or "Lake Skatsi". The ancient appellations lake Ascatiche, Askitichi, Scatsie or Ascatsie, reported in the Dictionary of Rivers and Lakes of the Province of Quebec (1914 and 1925) are deformations of the Innu expression "oskat assi" meaning "new earth", "where the wood is green" or "small raw skin" according to the authors. The toponym “Poutrincourt”, which appears on a map of the region of

in 1934, is borrowed from the name of the township where it is and honors the memory of Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt and Saint-Just (1557-1615), a character intimately linked to the beginning of the colonization of Acadie in the 17th century. With Sieur de Monts, among others, he spent the winter of 1604–1605 on Sainte-Croix Island at the mouth of the river of the same name, on the border separating New Brunswick from the State of Maine. In 1606, Poutrincourt returned to Acadia as lieutenant governor of the fledgling colony. He made several other stays in Port-Royal, notably in 1607, in 1610 and in 1614. The toponym "Lac Poutrincourt" was made official on December 5, 1968, by the

Commission de toponymie du Québec The Commission de toponymie du Québec (English: ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicize Québec's place names and their origins according ...

, i.e. when this commission was created.Quebec Geographic Names Board - Place Names Bank - Toponym: "Lac Poutrincourt"

Geography

Toponymy

Notes and references

See also