Here’s why villages are disappearing in Quebec

Chlova escaped the flames that burned thousands of square miles of forest in early June; Pascalis, in Abidibi, was less fortunate. The village disappeared within an hour and a half on July 7, 1944.

At that time, towards the end of the war, there was a terrible drought in Quebec. Although the rains put out the fire the next night, almost everything was destroyed and the village would not be rebuilt. 135 families settled in the mining town miraculously managed to find shelter. Residents seek refuge in the neighboring village of Peron and Sennetare and Amos.

“In Quebec there are many villages that have disappeared due to natural disasters, wars or political or economic choices. It is important to remember these precious witnesses of the past,” explains Jean-René Tuat, professor of history at the University of Quebec in Rimouski, in an interview.

Clear emotions

Especially for teaching history in middle school with his students, Mr. Tuat traveled in the 1960s to show the remains of the vanished hamlets of Saint-Nil and Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague.

A colonial house in Saint-Nil, Caspésy, survived the closure of the village. The village was born in 1934 and closed in 1974.

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Photo taken from Wikipedia

“When we arrive at the place after a long road, the team is very interested to see the foundations of the church marked by old toys or broken vessels, symbols of daily life,” says the regional history expert. Research project on this subject.

Cause against nature

We all remember the Saguenay landslide on May 4, 1971, when part of Saint-Jean-Vianney disappeared. 1,308 people were relocated, and only ruins remain at the Shipsha sector site of Chagune.

Front page of the Journal de Quebec following the landslide in Saint-Jean-Vianney.

Photo Archives / Le Journal de Quebec

Among the reasons for the disappearance of villages and hamlets in eastern Quebec (See below), Thuot points out that natural disasters are not very common.

“Most village closures in our history have been the result of economic or political decisions,” he summarizes.

Single-industry towns, such as Gagnon or Murdochville, could not survive as the mine closed or the company left.

In Gaspésie, people remember the sad memory of the eastern Quebec planning office, which led to the closure of 10 villages to save infrastructure.

“After asking people to settle the land, suddenly there was a counter talk. Repopulation of cities and closure of villages is necessary.

People don’t see it that way. People are attached to the region of their country and even today pilgrimages are made to honor ancestors buried in abandoned cemeteries.

5 Reasons Why a Village Closes

James Wolfe (1727-1759) was an English officer who died on the Plains of Abraham, promising to leave “famine and desolation” behind. It burned coastal villages along the St. Lawrence.

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Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada/MIKAN 2894990

1. Abandonment. People find that the site is inadequate or no longer relevant. Example: Kamorashka. For nearly a century, the village, built very close to the coast, was periodically flooded. In 1791, the church and houses were moved to a bank almost a kilometer away from the original location.

2. Compulsory removal by authorities. Road maintenance costs or dam flooding lead the government to relocate buildings. The bell tower, visible under the waters of the Taureau reservoir, has long testified to the end of the village of Saint-Ignace.

3. Compulsory closure by company. When the company that built the village closes or moves, people have to resign themselves to leaving.

4. Natural calamities destroy entire villages. Climate change may accelerate flooding, particularly in coastal environments.

5. Wars and civil conflicts have caused many villages to disappear. During the victory, the English soldiers left behind a sad scene of completely burnt villages. The villages of Papos and Mont-Louis de Penoul bear some traces of the passage of General Wolff in 1758.