Magog ( , ) is a city in southeastern

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada, about east of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

at the confluence of

Lake Memphremagog Lake Memphremagog (; , ) is a fresh water glacial lake located between Newport (city), Vermont, Newport, Vermont, United States and Magog, Quebec, Canada. The lake spans both Quebec and Vermont, but is mostly in Quebec. Most of the watershed th ...

—after which the city was named—with the Rivière aux Cerises and the

Magog River The Magog River, or Sekosonotek in Abenaki, is a river that drains Lake Memphremagog. It is a small river running through the territories of the cities of Magog, Quebec, Magog and Sherbrooke, in the administrative region of Estrie, in Quebec, in C ...

. It is a major centre and industrial city in the Regional County Municipality of Memphremagog. The city lies in the

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (, ) is a historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Lowlands, St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby, Quebec, Granby in ...

tourist region. In 2002, the City of Magog was merged with the Township of Magog and the Village of Omerville as part of the

municipal reorganization in Quebec 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 ...

Etymology

"Memphremagog" comes from the

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

word '' mamhlawbagak'', which means "large expanse of water" or "vast lake." "Magog" is believed to be a truncation of the lake's name. However, it could also come from ''namagok'' and ''namagwôttik'', which means "the lake where there is

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

." Others have theorised that the name has Biblical origins in

Gog and Magog Gog and Magog (; ) or Ya'juj and Ma'juj () are a pair of names that appear in the Bible and the Quran, Qur'an, variously ascribed to individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land. By the time of the New ...

, or that it refers to an ancient city by the same name.

History

The

were the first to inhabit the region and had long visited the Memphremagog and its waterways. White settlement began in 1776, when

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

s emigrated from nearby

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. They called it The Outlet, referring to the flow of water emptying into the Magog River from the lake. Ralph Merry, who is considered the founding father of Magog, was an American Revolutionary who immigrated to

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

in 1799 and settled in Bolton, to the west of the lake. He bought up all the neighbouring lots, including The Outlet village, where he went on to act as its mayor, judge, and developer. In 1821, he built a house there, which is the oldest standing house in the city. It was formally named Magog in 1855. At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th, the city's economy was dominated by the textile industry, most notably by a cotton mill operated by

Dominion Textile The Dominion Textile Inc. or Domtex was a Canadian textile manufacturer that was founded in 1905 and closed in 1998 when its remains were purchased by the American Polymer Group, at the time headed by Jerry Zucker. History Following the institu ...

. It was only in the 1960s and the 1970s that the city's economy would achieve desperately needed diversification through tourism, services, and the development of an industrial park. In 2002, the City of Magog was merged with the Township of Magog and the Village of Omerville as part of the

Notable people

* Rouville Beaudry,

Quebec nationalism Quebec nationalism or Québécois nationalism is a feeling and a political doctrine that prioritizes cultural belonging to, the defence of the interests of, and the recognition of the political legitimacy of the Québécois nation. It has been ...

activist who served in the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

* Pierre Bélanger, volleyball player who competed in the 1976 Olympics * Nicolas Boulay,

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

player * Reginald W. Buzzell, U.S. Army brigadier general, born in Magog * Sonia Vachon, actress

Geography

Magog is a city in southeastern

, Canada, about east of

at the confluence of

, the Rivière aux Cerises, and the

. The city of Magog is also in close proximity, 35 km (21.8 mi), to the Derby Line–Stanstead border crossing station at the Canada-United States border.

Climate

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Magog had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, an increase of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Population trend:Statistics Canada:

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

census (+) Merged with the Township of Magog and the Village of Omerville on October 9, 2002. Mother tongue (2011)2011 Statistics Canada Census Profile: Magog, Quebec
/ref>

Economy

The city is the economic core of the Regional County Municipality of Memphremagog.

Industry

For several generations, it was a one-industry (

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

) manufacturing town, where Dominion Textile made cotton goods. The main plant is still there. However, the plant has considerably reduced its activities to a few employees, who mainly make pillows.

Tourism

Magog is in a resort area, with shops and services catering to vacationers and tourists. Tourism is related to the lake and the nearby Mount Orford.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec