Seen from the air, the captivating landscape of Haute-Mauricie combines beauty and grandeur.
In Haute-Mauricie, forests are an important natural resource. They have long contributed to developing the region’s economy. However, following the arrival of the first loggers and the construction of roads and railways, the forests quickly became vulnerable.
La Vigilance, a Curtiss HS-2L G-CAA, photographed at Lac-à-la-Tortue in 1922.
As early as 1905, the Quebec government began to focus on preserving the resource through a special territory protection service. In 1919, La Tuque became the first Quebec region with a bush airplane when Canada gave two Curtiss HS-2L seaplanes to the Quebec Department of Lands and Forests.
Indeed, 1919 proved to be a year of incredible firsts. The La Vigilance aircraft completed one of the first long pan-Canadian flights in June. The Halifax to Lac-à-la-Tortue route was completed in three days and the historic water landing by pilot Stuart Graham marked the beginning of commercial bush flying in Canada.
One month later, La Vigilance stood out once more. It became the first plane to detect from the air a major forest fire raging along the banks of Croche River near La Tuque. This was another great Canadian first for Commander Graham. The wooden propeller of a 1939 aircraft can be seen in the public section of La Tuque airport.
La Tuque is still an air transportation hub in the Haute-Mauricie region. La Tuque airport is owned by the city and is the only airport in the territory with a 5,000-foot paved runway, terminal building, refuelling station and daytime radio flight information service. Several airplanes, helicopters and tanker airplanes fly in and out every day. Hundreds of seaplanes also land on our lakes every summer.
