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As we unravel local history and piece together the contributions of our forebears, we are often amazed at what we uncover.

Did you know that maple syrup is the oldest agricultural product in Quebec? It all began with the Indigenous peoples who called it “Sweet Water.” When spring returned and the maple sap was running the Indigenous peoples offered the boiled thickened syrup as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. “Sugaring off” was largely a woman’s function in Iroquois communities. The men cut notches into tree trunks and small wooden troughs were stuck into the bark.

In Morin Heights on Sunday, July 31st, Bishop Barry Clarke of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal led the celebration of Trinity Church’s 150th anniversary. He also presided at the dedication of a new sandstone wall on one street side of the cemetery. This quite lengthy and substantial wall was built by funds donated by families and friends of Trinity, who raised over $20,000 for its construction. A large walnut plaque, to be mounted inside the church, was also presented with the names of those people to whom the wall is dedicated.

When the railway first pushed northward into the Laurentians in the late nineteenth century, its initial purpose was to take out raw materials like lumber, building stone and minerals for the growing industries of Montreal.

By the 1890s, with the coming of the railways, the Laurentians were becoming less isolated, and in the summers, middle class people from Montreal started coming for vacations away from the city. This initiated a new form of economy -- the boarding house farm.

The line of cruise boats known as "the Alouette" has been catering to summer visitors to Lac des Sables in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts for over sixty years.

The snowmobile taxis / school buses that roamed Morin Heights village streets and roads in the 1940s and 1950s "must have been the most unusual vehicles to ever trek through the snow," as Sandra Stock described them.

One of the most striking features of the architecture at Echo Lake is the large number of round log houses. These were built between 1935 and 1955, initially by George Binns and other members of the Binns family. Round log style was also used by Binns at the Green Acres area on the other side of the village, off what is now Route 239 to Lachute.

The Young Men's Christian Association, or YMCA, was founded in London, England, in 1844, to provide assistance to young workers during the Industrial Revolution. Seven years later, in 1851, the very first branch of the "Y" was established in North America -- in Montreal.

Culture - Val-David Historical and Heritage Society

The young boy was standing in front of a small wooden table on which laid a birthday cake with four lit candles. You could see the gleam in the little guy’s face, and his underlying smile of knowing that this was his day to be celebrated, and his day alone. Dressed in a clean white shirt, dark slacks, and a clip-on bow tie, we could sense what he was thinking as he continued his bright-eyed stare into the candles. We could almost feel his wonder at what other miracles life would bring, and that this birthday was certainly one of them.

The publication, Cemetery Heritage in Quebec: A Handbook , is still available. The book, published by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network in 2008, and written by Matthew Farfan, project leader of QAHN's Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIRI), is available in softcover format.

Compassionate Return “Compassionate leave to Canada will only be granted in very exceptional cases in which extreme hardship would be caused to the individual concerned or his dependants, if he did not return. It must be demonstrated that the hardship could not be alleviated in any other manner.”

1) How did Lachute get its name? a) The town is named after Edmond La Chute who established a mill there in 1802. b) The town is named after a local waterfall. c) Lachute is a corruption of “The Shoot,” which referred to an annual hunt that took place here in the 1800s. d) Lachute is a corruption of the Indigenous word Lac’heutkt’ewah, which translates roughly as “good fishing place.”

1) b) La Chute is French for "the waterfall." 2) a) 3) a) 4) c) Jericho, Vermont. 5) a) 6) c) 7) b) The Argenteuil Agricultural Society, founded in 1826, has held an annual exposition ever since. The first Argenteuil County fair was held in St. Andrews East in 1826. For the next fifty years, different towns hosted the event. Since 1877, the fair has been held in Lachute. 8) a) 9) b) 10) b) These are the falls of the North River.

In 1963, the water behind the new Carillon Dam was raised over 60 feet, quieting the upstream tumult of the Long Sault Rapids. It also covered the canals and any remaining vestiges of old portage trails used to bypass the rapids. A lake over 20 km long was created, stretching all the way up the Ottawa River, beyond my home in Grenville.

In Canada, heritage sites may be designated nationally, provincially and municipally. The level of designation depends on the level of significance of the site. National Historic Sites must be judged to be of national significance; provincial, of provincial significance, and so on.

In the fall of 2007, QAHN launched its Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIRI). Our objective was to evaluate cemeteries of English speaking communities and / or religious congregations in several areas of Quebec, including the Laurentians.

Published by the Association of Gravestone Studies (AGS)Pamphlets, $2.50 to $4.50 each (plus shipping)

This month the McCord Museum of Montreal opens an exhibit entitled “Being Irish” to celebrate over 250 years of the Irish presence in Quebec. Usually what comes to mind when referring to our Irish history is Montreal and, to a lesser extent, Quebec City, where people of Irish origin have been, and have remained prominent in large numbers consistently for over two centuries. However, less known but equally important is the Irish rural heritage in Quebec. One area, first occupied by Irish settlers, was the vast tract of unsettled wilderness, to the north of the St. Lawrence.