Otterburn Park is a small town located 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 ...

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 ...

. The population as of the

Canada 2021 Census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, 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%, whic ...

was 8,479. The town lies south of Mont-Saint-Hilaire on the

Richelieu River The Richelieu River () is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champlain, from which it flows northward through Quebec and empties into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly kno ...

and is one of the few officially bilingual towns in Quebec.

History

Originally a rural agricultural area, Otterburn Park's transformation began in the late 1800s, when it became a favourite weekend destination for employees of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

, which, starting in 1885, ran a weekend train from

Bonaventure Station Bonaventure station () is a Montreal Metro station in the borough of Ville-Marie, Montreal, Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and serves the Line 2 Orange (Montreal Metro), ...

to Mont-Saint-Hilaire. Occasional recreational visitors, including railroad employees, bought or built summer cottages, spurring development and, eventually, permanent settlement. Until 1949, the Otterburn park was a neighbourhood within Mont-Saint-Hilaire parish. It took its present name, Otterburn Park, by vote in 1953. Otterburn Park was the scene of the

St-Hilaire train disaster The Beloeil train disaster occurred on June 29, 1864, at the present-day town of Beloeil, Quebec. A passenger train fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River after the crew failed to obey a stop signal. The widely accepted dea ...

in 1864, in which nearly 100 people were killed when an immigrant train failed to stop at an open swing bridge and fell into the Richelieu. The disaster remains the worst railroad accident in Canadian history, and the bridge is known to this day as the ''Pont Noir'', or black bridge.

Demographics

According to the

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; ) is an agency of the Quebec provincial government charged with ensuring legislative requirements with respect to the right to use French are respected. Established on 24 March 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the ...

, Otterburn Park has been officially recognized as a bilingual municipality since 1978-04-22. In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, Otterburn Park 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. Population trend: Mother tongue language (2021)2021 Statistics Canada Community Profile: Otterburn Park, Quebec
/ref>

Education

The

South Shore Protestant Regional School Board The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board (SSPRSB) was a Protestant Christian school district in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It served the South Shore region and it was headquartered in St. Lambert. The district operated elementary ...

previously served the municipality.King, M.J. (Chairperson of the board).
South Shore Protestant Regional School Board
(St. Johns, PQ). ''

The News and Eastern Townships Advocate The ''News and Eastern Townships Advocate'' is a newspaper based in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu () is a city in eastern Montérégie in the Canadian province of Quebec, about southeast of Montreal, located roughly halfwa ...

''. Volume 119, No. 5. Thursday December 16, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved from

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...

on November 23, 2014.

References

External links

City of Otterburn Park

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Incorporated places in La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality Greater Montreal Bilingual cities and towns in Quebec

History

Demographics

Education

See also

References

External links