The famous mountain in the shape of a tuque hat, before 1939.
Before its amalgamation in 1911, La Tuque was divided into two separate sectors. On one side of Rue Scott was La Tuque village and on the other, La Tuque Falls. La Tuque Falls was located to the north of Rue Scott and extended as far as the Grand River Bostonnais. Bolstered by its proximity to the Saint-Maurice River and all the boats that sailed on it, La Tuque Falls underwent a period of remarkable development. The factory and railway stations and Saint Zéphirin Church are still in La Tuque Falls.
La Tuque mountain today, as seen from the ski slopes.
At the time, there was palpable rivalry between the two “cities,” as evidenced by the mysterious explosion of the reservoir of a newly constructed aqueduct. Rightly or wrongly, the incident was attributed to the rival village, which was also coincidentally building an aqueduct. Interested in this story? You can see a remnant of this aqueduct on the hiking trail near the La Tuque ski slopes. At the time, there was palpable rivalry between the two “cities,” as evidenced by the mysterious explosion of the reservoir of a newly constructed aqueduct. Rightly or wrongly, the incident was attributed to the rival village, which was also coincidentally building an aqueduct. Interested in this story? You can see a remnant of this aqueduct on the hiking trail near the La Tuque ski slopes.
How did the city get its strange name, La Tuque? In documents from 1806 describing many portaging journeys, the traveller Jean-Baptiste Perreault noted that his eyes were drawn to “a mountain in the shape of a tuque,” the popular Quebec name for a hat at the time. Today, visitors can make their way to the lookout to take in the hydroelectric station embedded in the mountain that once proudly wore this hat.
Another Jean-Baptiste, Jean-Baptiste Tessier, became the first settler on the banks of the Saint-Maurice River in 1861. Shortly after, Adolphe Larue of Trois-Rivières settled near Croche River. In this way, La Tuque was populated one family at a time. There were a dozen or so residents in 1863. The amalgamated territory of La Tuque now covers close to 30,000 square kilometres and has a population of 15,000. Since its surface area is comparable to Belgium, La Tuque is the largest municipality in Quebec.
