The North River's name can be traced back to the time of the granting of the first seigniory of Argenteuil in 1682. The focal area was at its mouth where it joins the Ottawa River and the early maps show the North River with the West River flowing into it. G. R. Rigby in his 1964 history of Lachute notes that early surveyors marked La Chute (The Falls) on the North just upstream of where the West joins it.
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