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History
When you observe the park's pastoral landscapes or paddle over its large calm bays, you may get the impression that this area has always remained on the margin of history and that human activities, limited to agriculture, have had only a limited impact. In reality, the park's territory and its immediate surroundings have a rich past that dates back several millennia and that forms an integral part of the complex history of the Outauais region. Whether it involves logging, colonization or
hydro-electricity, these human activities have greatly altered the natural area over the last two centuries.
The artifacts found at the park, suggest that human occupation of the territory dates back to the period that extends from 4000 to 2000 B.C. Descendents of the Asiatic peoples who had crossed the Bering Strait, these men and women eked out a living from hunting, fishing and gathering. Far from being isolated, the populations of this era lived at the heart of a vast trading network, including Rivière des Outaouais which, linked to the Great Lakes and the St.
Lawrence River, served as an artery of travel. This trading system, which centered on the copper of Lake Superior, a metal that the inhabitants of the Outaouais shaped into tools, covered the entire American northeast.
The park's soil has yielded other artifacts testifying to the Aboriginal presence on this territory, this time during the so-called Woodland Period (from 1000 B.C. to 1600), during which the major Aboriginal nations were formed. Upon analyzing the remains exhumed from these two sites, archaeologists concluded that an Aboriginal settlement had been set up on the shores of Baie Noire between 600 and 1000 of the Common Era. A third site reveals the presence of another camp, likely dating back to the period between 1000
and 1600.
When Champlain sailed up the Outaouais for the first time in 1613, he noted the presence at the mouth of a small river of an Indian band belonging to the Algonquin nation: the Weskarinis. As this tribe was much smaller in number than the powerful Algonquins of île aux Allumettes further west, he nicknamed the Weskarinis "La Petite Nation" (the little nation). The watercourse at whose confluent these Native people had settled was given the same name. The park's territory was included in the maps of New France and its
inhabitants became part of New France's history. Like their ancestors, the Weskarinis lived from hunting, fishing and gathering small fruit. Nomadic, they only came together at the mouth of La Petite Nation in summer. In fall and winter, the band broke up into small groups and went into the forests of La Petite Nation, Rivière Rouge and Rivière du Lièvre, their hunting grounds. However, the arrival of the French would lead to the disappearance of the Weskarinis, like that of the entire Algonquin nation. Decimated by
microbial infections, pursued by the Iroquois, their traditional enemies, the Algonquins disappeared from the shores of Grande Rivière, an area they had occupied for several millennia.
Their descendants would only return to take part in the fur trade after the Peace of 1701. Upon returning from their hunting expeditions, some would stop with their load of furs at Fort de la Petite-Nation, which like all other establishments of the time, served as a trading post, inn, brothel and gambling spot.
In 1803, Joseph Papineau, elected member for Montréal at the time, purchased the Seigneurie de la Petite-Nation, which up until then had never been exploited. This acquisition marked the start of the French colonization in the sector, where American, Scottish and Irish colonists would also settle. The magnificent pine forests of the Outaouais region began to be decimated by lumber merchants who sold the long squared trunks on the British market. At the Seigneurie de la Petite-Nation, the operation of a sawmill at the
foot of Chutes du Moulin was successively entrusted to various entrepreneurs. A long wood slide was used to transport the wood from the mill to the confluence of the Outaouais; from there, the wood assembled in rafts floated to the Port of Québec. A small hamlet developed around the sawmill. At the turn of the century entrepreneur W.C. Edwards would name it North Nation Mills. In 1817, Joseph Papineau sold the seigniory to his son Louis-Joseph, a well-known politician, who twenty years later would head the Mouvement
des Patriotes. Like the rest of the Outaouais, the territory was part of a logging empire. At Thurso, the majority of the population earned a living from the Singer sawmill. The Municipality of Plaisance, for its part, was created in 1900. At the same time as the pulp and paper industry was developing, the hydroelectricity industry began to flourish in the 1930s. Dams were built on Rivière des Outaouais as well as on some of its tributaries. In 1963, the entry into service of Carillon Dam caused the water level of
Rivière des Outaouais to rise. At Plaisance, the affected lands, acquired by Hydro-Québec, became Parc Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a recreation and camping site. Aware of the high ecological potential of the new marshes, various government organizations, as well as Ducks Unlimited Canada, developed the sector to protect waterfowl.
In 1978, the Plaisance Wildlife Reserve was created. Twenty-four years later, with the support of the public, regional authorities and the scientific community, the State granted the territory of Plaisance the status of a national park. Henceforth protected, the extremely rich landscapes, fauna and flora of Plaisance, would contribute to the preservation of biodiversity for the well-being and pleasure of current and future generations.
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