See also: Saguenay

The river Saguenay is a river located at the Quebec. It takes its source in the Lac Midsummer's Day and is thrown in the Fleuve the St. Lawrence along a west-north-west course with east-south-east of 155 km. Its catchment area, that one can see on the right, drains a good part of the center of the province and extends on 698 km length, since the source of the river Péribonka to the river.

Geography

Saguenay takes its origin in the lake Midsummer's Day, immediately after the Isle-Malignant stopping with Alma. At this place, water is soft. It is then divided into two: the Small one and Great Discharge. The island formed by these two rivers constitutes part of the municipality of Alma. It is when these two rivers meet that Saguenay begins truly. Two bridges cross the Small Discharge and two others cross the Great Discharge.

With the height of Shipshaw, Saguenay is divided again into two. On the northern river, one finds the hydroelectric station of Shipshaw and, on the northern side, the power station of Fall-with-Charon. It is with this height that is the Aluminum bridge.

Between Chicoutimi and Jonquière, the two outfalls of the stoppings meet to form Saguenay such as it is the best known one. It becomes accessible to navigation with this height. Moreover, Chicoutimi means until where it in Innu is deep. In the downtown area of Chicoutimi, one finds the Pont Dubuc and the Pont Holy-Anne.

A little downstream, with the height of Saint-Fulgence, the fjord of Saguenay begins vis-a-vis the arrow from the littoral. It is about the demarcation between fresh water and salt water. The height of Tadoussac, a Traversier ensures the connection between Tadoussac and Bay-Holy-Catherine.

Fjord of Saguenay

The valley in which runs the Saguenay river has the characteristics of a Fjord, of Saint-Fulgence to Tadoussac. Of a hundred kilometers length and of a width varying from 1 to 3,5 km, the fjord occupies a deep notch in Laurentides, bordered by escarpées cliffs an average height of 150 m and, at certain places, of more than 400 m, as with the courses Trinité (411 m) and Eternity (457 m), which does not prevent the beaver S of living in its upstream part. Its deep and majestic throats, are the result of the last Glaciation. It was invaded then by the sea after the cast iron of the Glacier S. the tide is felt until Chicoutimi.

The fjord of Saguenay is strewn with various landscapes. After the town of Saguenay, the valley quickly becomes escarpée. The impressive cliffs of the Cape Trinity and the Cape Éternité are located close to the village of Holy-Rose-of-North. The depth at this place is equivalent to the height of the mountains. It stretches west more or less is then to its mouth with Tadoussac and it east is only strewn only with some villages at the bay bottom.

A good part of the fjord is included in the National park of Saguenay and in the marine Parc of the Saguenay-Saint-Laurent. Several sportsmen, kayakers, hikers and tourists traverse the territory thanks to infrastructures especially conceived for tourism of nature. Sites of wild camp-site make it possible to the kayakers to descend it in a few days. Hundreds of paths, like that which leads to the view-point in top of the course Trinité, offer exceptional sights on the fjord. With the downstream of the river, close to Tadoussac, the Whale S and the Phoque S can be observed thanks to cruisings which go on the river and goes up until the course Trinité.

Its physical characteristics made its colonization difficult. Although navigation is important there, only some bays allow accosting. Moreover, the escarpé ground lends itself little to agriculture. The wind is channeled there by high cliffs and it is often stronger and of a different direction that to the Lake Midsummer's Day and along the St. Lawrence river. One finds there a perfect example of Vent antitriptic which is aligned along the fjord and whose the navigators must be wary.

Coastal municipalities

Of the upstream towards the downstream

History

During millenia before the arrival of Europeans, the Amerindian used Saguenay like trade and loader-gate. It was the way of displacement between the game resources of the interior and the fishing zones of the St. Lawrence as well as the bond between the tribes of its catchment area. The whole was made in Canot bark. The Basques are the first to have visited the area of Tadoussac at the time of their hunting for the whale. It surely traded with the Amerindians but they are the French who established the first station of draft of fur in 1600.

So that a first explorer poses the foot on the current territory of Chicoutimi, it is necessary to await the father Jean de Quen who, at the request of the tribes of Piekouagami (Lac Midsummer's Day) reached of an epidemic devastator, borrows the Rivière Chicoutimi to reach the Lac Kénogami then the Lac Midsummer's Day from July 11th to 16th 1647. In May 1652, the epidemic perdure always and forces the establishment of a mission to the lake Midsummer's Day by the Jesuit S which use the same road as the father Jean Dequen to go to destination. According to their accounts, several Amerindian burials then strew banks with Saguenay because of the important devastations of the epidemic. The missionaries take this road until 1671 coming to assistance of the tribes victims of the epidemic and the war against the Iroquois.

The area however remained apart from colonization during all the period of the News-France and at the beginning of the British mode because of its distance of the centers of settlement of the valley of the St. Lawrence, its geography not very favourable with agriculture and of the difficulties of transport. However, the exploitation of the forest will be the release of the arrival of the population white in the area. At the beginning of the 19th century, the continental Blocus by Napoleon forced England to feed out of wood in its Canadian colony for the Naval construction. The area of Saguenay, glaze of forests, attracts finally investors like William Price. This last forms a quota to go to found villages for the cut of wood and later for the paste and paper.

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the development of the pleasing electricity of other investments in the area which has hydroelectric strong potential . The greatest part will be used to develop the treatment plants of the aluminum of Alcan with Arvida but will also be used for the needs for Quebec in electricity.

19 at July 21st, 1996, torrential rains made overflow the hydroelectric reserves of the area, causing what one called the Déluge of Saguenay . Nearly two meters of water broke in the towns of Chicoutimi and Bay (maintaining both of the districts of the town of Saguenay), killing seven people (two with Bay and five on Coast-North) and causing the evacuation of 16.000 others. The material damage was estimated at 1,5 billion Canadian dollars (1996). The river of the ha! Ha!, to the south of Chicoutimi, also left its regular course to trace new, while cutting the roads etisolant a good part of the area of low Saguenay and back-country.

External bonds

  • toponymic

    glacial Fjord of the Saguenay river, notes

  • Tadoussac (Municipality of village), toponymic notes

  • the Fjord in the small hour

  • Traverser the fjord on the level of Tadoussac obliges to use the cross bar

  • the Saguenay river on Google Maps

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