Saint-André-Avellin is a municipality located within the

Papineau Regional County Municipality Papineau is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The seat is Papineauville. Subdivisions There are 24 subdivisions within the RCM: Demographics Mother tongue from Canada 2016 Census In 2016, the popu ...

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 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. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 3,749 people. The town, located along Quebec route 321, is about north of Papineauville and

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 ...

and

Quebec Autoroute 50 Autoroute 50 (Autoroute de l'Outaouais) is an Autoroute in western Quebec, Canada. It links Canada's National Capital Region (Gatineau) and the Greater Montreal area ( Mirabel). Until November 2012, there were two distinct sections of A-50: on ...

and is about an hour away from

Downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the ea ...

History

It was in 1841 that the first

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

s arrived in the townships which Saint-André-Avellin today lies. As being part of a large valley near 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 ...

, it had

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

potential but was located very far from the main corridor of the

Saint 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, connectin ...

and the main area in which there was significant agriculture development in large townships on both sides of the river between

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

. Due to the more remote location and the lack of efficient transportation, the development during much of the remainder of the 19th century was fairly slow until several economic crises forced authorities to look for newer land to develop. Throughout most of the century, it was mostly used for the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

industry due to the proximity of extensive forest areas in the higher valleys and hills of the region. The

parish municipality A parish is an administrative division used by several countries. To distinguish it from an ''ecclesiastical parish'', the term ''civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is ...

was created in 1851 and it was in 1890, that the first school was built in the area. Population gradually increased, especially during the 1970s by a wave of

rural development Rural development is the process of improving the quality life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of l ...

. The parish and the village that was made official in the second half of the 19th century merged in the late 1990s.MRCpapineau.com
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Demographics

Features and festivals

It is one of the major sites of what it is called La Petite-Nation and is the site of two major summer events including the annual Western Rodeo Festival, as well as Musique en Nous, a county-wide event which it presents newer musical talents in the region as well as popular Quebec singers. The town is also home to a theatre and a regional museum related to the history of the Petite-Nation.

Local government

List of former mayors: * Jean-Denis Lalonde (2002–2005) * Thérèse Whissell (2005-2017) * Jean-René Carrière (2017–present)

References

External links