Description

This village on the Manicouagan Peninsula offer a wide range of services, including a shopping district, restaurants, a fish market, a pharmacy and a community health centre. Tourist attractions include parks and playgrounds, as well as hiking trails with great views of the rivière aux Outardes River and an unpaved walking path that takes visitors by the former Outardes-1 hydroelectric power station. The village was founded during the timber boom and the construction of the region's first generating station in 1926. Today the surrounding boreal forest is inhabited by a great variety of plant and animal life: a treasure trove for nature lovers.

The intermediate 3.6-km Sentier des renards, or Foxes Trail, takes visitors back to important places in the small town's history. In winter it becomes a snowshoeing trail and it's a great place for birdwatching year-round. Drink in the surrounding natural beauty as you gaze upon the river.

Looking back ...

The village municipality of Chute-aux-Outardes, officially created in 1951, was settled relatively late because of the First Nations people who lived there. The village was named after the great number of Canada geese (called outardes in Quebec) that use the nearby Manicouagan River on their annual migration.

Alfred Labbé, a coachman who regularly rode the route between Pessamit and Pointe-des-Monts, unofficially founded the village in 1908. He became friends with the Innu who taught him the fur trade. He worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, as a cook at the Ontario Paper Company and as a salesman at the General Store.

 In 1926, Robert R. McCormick, president of the Ontario Paper Company, began the construction of the Outardes I hydroelectric power station on the Outardes River to supply a future paper mill. Because of the economic crisis of 1929, the station did not become operational until 1936. Local families from Trois-Pistoles and the south shore of the St. Lawrence River moved to the village to work at the power station and in the mill. The power station ceased operations in 1978. That same year, the Outardes Sawmill was opened under an agreement between Quebec North Shore Paper and Rexford Paper.

For information, contact the Visitor Information Centre at 418 567-8912, or the municipality at 418 567-2144.