The River:
The history of Lanaudière is first and foremost a story of the great settlement movement along the St. Lawrence River, the only major highway for the original inhabitants and, later on, for the new arrivals from France.
The Indigenous heritage has been traced back as far as the 14th century through archeological sites in Quebec. Today, in the far north of the region, the village of Manawan remains a reserve where a community of Attikamek lives.
One of the most obvious landmarks in the Morin Heights and St. Adolphe d'Howard area was the large dome on top of Lac St. Denis Mountain. This enormous puffball mushroom lingered on long after the base, Canadian Forces Station Lac St. Denis, closed in 1986.
Nominingue is above all a lake! On the Indigenous peoples’ route to their hunting and fishing territories. Algonquins, Iroquois and others travelled the tributaries of the Ottawa: the Nord, the Rouge, the Petite-Nation, the Lièvre et the Gatineau. It was their custom to name locations they visited on their travels. Does "Nominingue" have its origins in the Iroquois or the Algonquin languages? Who could tell? According to Mr. B.A. de Montigny, Nominingue means in Iroquois: "red paint".
The earliest nineteenth century settlements of the Laurentians were intended to be agricultural, in spite of the unpromising terrain and the very short growing season.
Where the North River divides the first mountain ranges of the Laurentians from the St. Lawrence plains, the settlement of what later became Shawbridge was established in the early nineteenth century. The first inhabitants came from Ireland and many descendants of these families still live in our area.
Ste. Agathe and the surrounding lakes have been the favoured destination of generations of North Americans. Ours is a Quebec town that has absorbed and reflects all of the various cultural influences that make up Canada.The indigenous peoples, the Weskarinis-Algonkians, wintered in our area for centuries before their fateful defeat at the hands of the Iroquois in 1651. Even so, its name may well come from the Algonkian word Mittawang, meaning sandy shores.In 1849 the first hardy settlers arrived, a handful of families with descendants in the community to this day.
Author’s note: From response received from visitors to the Rawdon Historical Society website, there seems to be a great interest in Rawdon during the middle of the last century. In response to this interest, I have dug out my collection of the Rawdon News Bulletins and tried to portray Rawdon as it was at that particular time. I admit to using this source extensively for the following article, but I know that the editor and his staff would give whole hearted approval, were they still here.
Two competing waves of migrationto the Laurentians got under wayin the early 1840s, according to historian Serge Laurin. One, says Laurin, wasFrench-Canadian and Catholic, the other wasEnglish-Canadian and Protestant. Both occurred at precisely the same time; both followed different routes.
This township is bounded on the north by Mille Isles, east by the Seignory of Two Mountains, south by the Seignory of Argenteuil, and west by Wentworth, and contains about 23,660 acres and the usual allowance for highways. It has several beautiful little lakes, and much fine scenery.
This place, the chef-lieu of the county of Argenteuil, is located on the North River, 9 miles from the Ottawa and 44 north of Montreal. It is also on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, -- formerly the Q. M. O. & O. Railway.