From the earliest times, nomadic Algonquin families canoed the Gatineau River, and in the 17th century fur traders arrived to do business with the Indigenous hunters. More permanent settlements began with the logging boom in the early 1800s, bringing both employment and development, and soon immigrant families moved in to take up land grants offered by the government.
Pointe-au Père, which is now a part of the City of Rimouski, has served as one of Canada's most important centres for aid to maritime navigation since the mid-1800s.
When married and still living in Montreal, Mother [Mary Ann Swift Wickham] took us children to St. Lambert when ill in summer. She boarded at an inn on the riverbank kept by the Irvings and known as Irving’s Hotel. This was then a roadhouse, where farmers passing to market in the city by ferry, or ice-bridge, stopped to refresh themselves. St. Lambert air was thought to cure “summer complaint” a cause of great infant mortality in those days. The sufferer was rowed upon the river. However, the fresh milk obtainable was more likely the cause of improvement.
