Murdochville () is a city in

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, one of only a few inland communities on the

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (, ; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick on it ...

. Its population (as of 2021) is 643.

History

In 1921,

copper ore Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

was discovered in the area by the Miller brothers: Alfred, Sydney, Frederick, Angus and Theophilus. However, it was not until 1950 that Noranda Mines actually began mining. The mining town was set up and named after James Y. Murdoch, owner of the mine and first president of Noranda. In 1953, the town was incorporated. The mining operation in the town was comparatively large, starting with mining the raw ore and finishing with an end product of pure copper anode. In the 1970s, the mining operation in Murdochville was large enough to support a population of 5,000 inhabitants. A number of large union battles in Murdochville also helped lay the groundwork for ideas that still exist today. The 1957 Murdochville strike led to the adoption of several new laws protecting the rights of unionized workers in Quebec. In 1987, the mine was partially destroyed by an underground fire, and mining only resumed two years later. The mine closed in 1999, leaving the town to fight for survival. After several close calls, the small town has decided to fight back, in an effort to reverse the economic uncertainty that has befallen it. This has included the creation of several large

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

projects, along with the diversification of the local economy, with emphasis on tourism (such as skiing in the winter months). The presence of numerous lakes in the surrounding area remains an important attraction for fishing enthusiasts.

Geography

Murdochville is located along Quebec Route 198 in the geographic township of Holland, south of

L'Anse-Pleureuse Saint-Maxime-du-Mont-Louis () is a municipality in Quebec, Canada. Located in the administrative region of Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and the regional county municipality of La Haute-Gaspésie, the municipality comprises the communities o ...

and west of Gaspé. It is above sea level and surrounded by high mountains.

Climate

Murdochville has a warm-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''

Dfb DFB may refer to: Music * Dem Franchize Boyz, an Atlanta hip hop group * Dysfunctional Family BBQ, a New York festival Sport * DFB-Pokal, a football cup competition in Germany Organisations * Furka Steam Railway (), Switzerland * German Footbal ...

''). Summers are relatively cool and short, whereas winters are long and at times very cold with massive amounts of snowfall. The brief summers are, however, mild enough to keep September (the fourth-warmest month) right above the isotherm for a humid continental 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 ...

, Murdochville 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.

References

External links