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The magnificent stands of white pine located in Bristol township attracted the first settlers in the early 1800's. The municipality of Bristol - located in the south-east corner of Pontiac - was incorporated in 1846, with William Craig as its first mayor. The iron ore deposits, here, where first mined from 1872 to 1894. In 1956, the owners of Hilton Mines constructed the new open pit mining and processing facilities.

The municipalities of Alleyn and Cawood boast of many beautiful lakes and rivers. Fishing and hunting are excellent, and there are very good snowmobile trails. Danford Lake, located at the intersection of Hwy. 301 and the Harrison/Cawood Road in the north-east end of Pontiac, is the main village. The municipality was erected in 1877. Its first mayor was Robert J.Bradnor. The original settlers, who were mostly of Irish descent, worked in the lumber industry.

Sheen, Esher, Malakoff & Aberdeen Irish people who emigrated to Canada in the 1830's to escape the potato famine and religious persecution were for the most part the settlers of Sheenboro. Some set up homes in the area of McGillvery Lake because there were washouts caused by the spring floods near the Ottawa River.

Before the first European settler arrived, the first nations peoples, the Algonquins and the Iroquois, fought each other for control of the river. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Hudson's Bay Company set up a trading post in the region. The first Europeans settlers established themselves on the south shore of the River Island. In 1840, a church was built at Rapides Paquet, which later became a ferry stop.

In 1611, Nicolas Vignau, a white scout, landed at what is now Portage du Fort with a party of Algonquins. On their way to tribal headquarters at Allumettes Island, they had to portage overland for the first of a series of five difficult cataracts. In 1694, the famous military engineer Louis d'Ailleboust, Sieur de Coulonge, established a fur trading post hear the mouth of the Coulonge River. The stretch of cataracts that led to Fort Coulonge became known as "le portage du fort" and this is how the settlement at the foot of the rapids got its name.

Nicholas d'Ailleboust, Sieur de Coulonge, spent the winter of 1694-95 near the mouth of the Coulonge River and so established one of the first settlements on the Ottawa River. The first trading post was called Fort-Coulonge. In 1760, the Northwest Company took over its management and in 1821, the Fort became the property of the Hudson's Bay Company. Until 1828, it served as the head post on the Ottawa River. The post's 655 acre farm was sold in 1844 and the buildings in 1855. The trading post became the village of Fort-Coulonge situated several kilometres down river.

1. Which of the following is NOT an island in the Ottawa River? a) Ile-aux-Allumettes. b) Ile-du-Grand-Calumet. c) Ile-Morrison. d) Ile-Quyon. 2. Which of the following is NOT a municipality in the Pontiac? a) Bristol. b) Mansfield-et-Pontefract. c) Kazabazua. d) Litchfield.

1) d. (No such island). 2) c. (Kazabazua is in the Gatineu Valley). 3) b. 4) c. (Pinus resinosa, or Norway pine, as the early pioneers called it). 5) d. 6) b. 7) c. (Les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée had a mission here). 8) c. 9) a. 10) b. (Bryson lost its title to a booming Campbell's Bay in 1926).

--May 16, 2007The Pontiac Museum, which is located at the Fairgrounds in Shawville, and which is run by the volunteer Pontiac Historical Society, needs your help! The museum is housed in the former Shawville railway station, which was built in 1886 by the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway. Home to the museum since 1976, the former station is now in need of repair.

The earliest settlers in the Shawville area were Irish Protestants from County Tipperary who came to Canada after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. Many had first settled in the Carp Valley on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River. Local lore tells us that Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth set out from this colony in the summer of 1821 to search for new land to settle. It is believed they paddled up the river, landing in a small bay some forty miles upriver. The two men then set off northward in search of a suitable place to homestead.

Lumbering and farming attracted the first settlers to Campbell’s Bay, which was incorporated as a municipality in 1904. E.H. Workman was the first mayor. The village was named after Lieut. Donald Campbell, a soldier in the Scottish Regiment, who was granted a large amount of land. The main drag, Front Street, is unique in that its buildings are on one side of the street only, giving everyone a majestic view of the Ottawa River.

The village of Bryson was named after the honorable John Bryson, MP for Pontiac. Incorporated in 1873, its first mayor was Walter Rimer. Located on the banks of the Ottawa River, Bryson was an inland port for passengers and freight heading north-west-ward during the era of steamships. Near Bryson, there are ruins of an old grist mill. People came from as far away as Fort Coulonge to have their grain milled.

Located on the Ottawa River, Calumet Island was for many years the meeting place of the Algonquin people. During the French Régime, Calumet Island, like the rest of the Ottawa River, was a link in the western route to the Great Lakes (via the Mattawa River, Lake Nipissing and the French River up to the Georgian Bay).

One of the original five municipalities in Pontiac, Litchfield was erected on November 20, 1846, with Alfred Lancaster as its first mayor. In December of the following year, the first meeting of the district of the 3rd Division of Ottawa County was held at the home of Samuel Morehead on Highway 148. Today the house is the home of Dawson Morehead. In 1964 the Pontiac County Council (now Pontiac MRC) built its headquarters in Litchfield, on Highway 148 at the edge of Campbell's Bay.

From the time of Philemon Wright’s settlement around the Chaudière Falls in 1800, the rapid and difficult course of the Gatineau River discouraged logging along its length and also served as a barrier to canoes and boats attempting to travel upriver.

It was close to midnight on a warm July evening in 1984 when flames seared the sky in one of the worst fires that West Quebec has ever seen. It was caused by arson, a gasoline-soaked car pushed onto the east side of Wakefield’s historic wooden covered bridge and torched, turning the tinder-dry, 70-year-old structure to a roaring inferno within seven minutes.

Clarendon’s vast stands of white and red pine became a much sought after commodity during the lumbering boom of the 19th century. Lumber quickly became the primary industry in Clarendon until the 1890s. Thomas Durrell is credited with being the first in the timber business in Clarendon. In 1831, he was operating a timber industry at Clarendon’s Mills.

Easy access to clay and limestone in Clarendon made bricks and mortar a logical venture. Clarendon lime kilns were built as early as the 1860s and many bricks were made by hand. In 1888, while there were a few brick industries already in operation in Shawville, two additional brickyards were set up in Clarendon.

The saw and grist mills were the first commercial ventures in Clarendon. They were established mainly as a means of fulfilling the basic needs of the early settlers since they needed lumber for houses and farm buildings, and the grain needed to be ground to make flour and animal feed.