Petite-Nation River

The Petite-Nation River is a river in western

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, that flows from the

Laurentian Mountains The Laurentian Mountains ( French: ''Laurentides'') are a mountain range in southern Quebec, Canada, north of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River, rising to a highest point of at Mont Raoul Blanchard, northeast of Quebec City in the Laurentid ...

to empty into 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 ...

near

Plaisance, Quebec Plaisance is a municipality in Papineau Regional County Municipality in western Quebec, Canada. The village is situated on the Ottawa River near the mouth of the Petite-Nation River, 70 km from Gatineau and 160 km from Montreal on Route ...

. The river is in length. This river's French name refers to the

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

people that inhabited this region, the ''Weskarini'', which means "people of the little nation". The valley of the Petite-Nation was part of the

Seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

y de la Petite-Nation, originally owned by the Lord

François de Laval Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, commonly referred to as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), was a French prelate of the Catholic Church. Consecrated a bishop in 1658, he led the Apostolic Vicariate of New France from 1658 to ...

, the first archbishop of

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

Joseph Papineau Joseph Papineau (October 16, 1752 – July 8, 1841) was a notary, seigneur, and political figure in Lower Canada. Between 1773 and 1775, he worked as a surveyor. Papineau was also a horticulturalist whose estate home at Montebello is a to ...

acquires it from

Séminaire de Québec The Seminary of Quebec (French: Séminaire de Québec) is a Catholic community of diocesan priests in Quebec City founded by Bishop François de Laval, the first bishop of New France in 1663. History The Séminaire de Québec is a Society of d ...

in two parts, in 1801 and 1803. Joseph Papineau sold the seigneury to his son,

Louis-Joseph Papineau Louis-Joseph Papineau (October 7, 1786 – September 23, 1871), born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the ''seigneurie de la Petite-Nation''. He was the leader of the reformist Patriote movement before the Lower ...

, in 1817. Denis-Benjamin, Joseph's second son, is the lord of the seigneury. In 1929, the Papineau domain was sold off and became the Seigniory Club, which in turn later was acquired by Canadian Pacific hotels, now known as Fairmont. left, Petite-Nation River in Duhamel. Louis-Joseph Papineau built a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

on the river at the Chutes du Diables Falls. A village, named North Nation Mills was part of the seigneury owned by Louis-Joseph Papineau. He was a former rebel, in Lower Canada, who was operating the mill at the time and developed at this site. Pine logs were floating down the river to the mill. The owners of the mill changed a few times : from the Papineau family to the Cooke family, and then the Gilmour family, and finally to the Edwards and the McClarens. The village was demolished in 1920 after the sawmill was shut down. The area near the river's mouth was flooded by a

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by the ...

dam on the Ottawa River. A Quebec park is located in this area. There is also the

South Nation River The South Nation River is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It springs from forests and marshes located north of Brockville and it flows northeast to empty into the Ottawa River north of Plantagenet. Shows the river's course highlighted on a t ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

which empties into the Ottawa River. Rivers of Outaouais {{Quebec-river-stub