Bowman is a village and municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is located in the Laurentian Hills

Laurentian mountains

The Laurentian Mountains are a mountain range in southern Quebec, Canada, north of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River, rising to a highest point of 1166 metres at Mont Raoul Blanchard, north east of Quebec City in the Reserve Faunique des Laurentides. The Gatineau, L'Assomption, Lièvre,...

, 72 kilometres (44.7 mi) north-east of Gatineau

Gatineau

Gatineau is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is the fourth largest city in the province. It is located on the northern banks of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario, and together they form Canada's National Capital Region. Ottawa and Gatineau comprise a single Census...

.

Geography

The municipality is bordered to the east by the Du Lièvre River

Du Lièvre River

The du Lièvre River is a river in western Quebec which flows south from the Mitchinamécus reservoir and empties into the Ottawa River at Masson-Angers. The river is 330 km in length and drains an area of 10,400 km²...

 and by Whitefish Lake (lac du Poisson Blanc) in the north-west. Its terrain is characterized by several deep lakes (including Reservoir l'Escalier) in a hilly terrain with altitudes between 200 metres (656.2 ft) and 430 metres (1,410.8 ft).

History

Bowman Township was formed in 1861 and named after one of the first inhabitants of this place, Baxter Bowman, who operated a sawmill at Dufferin Chutes in Buckingham

Buckingham, Quebec

Buckingham was a city located in the Outaouais region of the province of Quebec. Since January 1, 2002, it has been part of the amalgamated city of Gatineau which merged five former municipalities, including Masson-Angers, Buckingham, Hull, Aylmer and Gatineau, into a single entity...

 and was owner of a large tract of forest in the Outaouais in the late nineteenth century.

On 1 January 1885, Bowman was combined with Villeneuve Township to form the United Township Municipality of Bowman-et-Villeneuve. In 1913, the Township Municipality of Bowman was formed when the two townships separated (Villeneuve was renamed to Val-des-Bois

Val-des-Bois, Quebec

Val-des-Bois is a town and municipality in the Papineau Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The town is located on the eastern shores of the Du Lièvre River, north of Buckingham....

in 1958), and in 1954, its statutes were amended again to become the Municipality of Bowman.

Bowman was hit by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on June 23, 2010 and suffered some damage to a 50 metre wide area of land near a bridge. Traffic on Route 307 was diverted while Transport Canada assessed the damage. There were no fatalities.

Demographics

Population:

• Population in 2006: 676 (2001 to 2006 population change: 20.1 %)
• Population in 2001: 563
• Population in 1996: 516
• Population in 1991: 481

Total private dwellings (excluding seasonal cottages): 296

Languages:

• English as first language: 7 %
• French as first language: 88 %
• English and French as first language: 2 %
• Other as first language: 3 %