Lake Mistassini
Encyclopedia
Lake Mistassini is the largest natural lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

 by surface area in the province 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...

, with a total surface area of approximately 2,335 km² and a net area (water surface area only) of 2,164 km². It is located in the Jamésie
Jamésie Territory, Quebec
Jamésie is a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality of Quebec. Its geographical code is 991 .Together with the TEs of Kativik and Eeyou Istchee, it forms the administrative region and census division of Nord-du-Québec...

 region of the province, approximately 360 kilometres (223.7 mi) east of James Bay
James Bay
James Bay is a large body of water on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean. James Bay borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; islands within the bay are part of Nunavut...

. The Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 town of Mistissini
Mistissini, Quebec
Mistissini is a Cree town located in the south-east corner of the largest natural lake in Quebec, Lake Mistassini . The town is inside the boundaries of the Baie-James Municipality, and is the largest Cree community with a population of around 4000 people...

 is located on Watson Peninsula in the south-east corner of the lake, which separates Baie du Poste from Abatagouche Bay.

Extensive forests of Spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

, Birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

, Pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, and Fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...

 trees, which support a booming forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...

 industry, surround the lake. The region is also noted to be one of Canada's largest agricultural producers of blueberries
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...

.

Significant tributaries flowing into the lake include:
  • Chalifour
  • Pépeshquasati
  • Takwa
  • Témiscamie
  • Wabissinane

Etymology

The name Mistassini came from the Cree
Cree language
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...

 mista assini or Montagnais
Innu-aimun
Innu-aimun or Montagnais is an Algonquian language spoken by over 11,000 people, called the Innu, in Labrador and Quebec in Eastern Canada...

 mishta ashini, and means large rock; it probably refers a large glacial erratic
Glacial erratic
A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres...

 stone, about 3 metres (9.8 ft) high, located near the outlet of Lake Mistassini into the Rupert River
Rupert River
The Rupert River is one of the largest rivers in Quebec, Canada. From its headwaters in Lake Mistassini, the largest natural lake in Québec, it flows west into Rupert Bay on James Bay. The Rupert drains an area of . There is some extremely large whitewater on the river, but paddlers can avoid...

.

Over the centuries, it went through many name changes and different spellings. In 1664, on a map by Ducreux, this lake was known as Outakgami. On maps by Jolliet (1684), Jaillot (1685) and Franquelin (1688), the lake was identified as Timagaming. In 1703, the cartographer Guillaume Delisle
Guillaume Delisle
Guillaume Delisle was a French cartographer who lived in Paris.His father, Claude Delisle studied law and then later settled in Paris as private teacher in geography and history, and afterwards filled the office of royal censor...

 used the same name, along with the name Mistasin. Laure (1731) and Bellin
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin
Jacques Nicolas Bellin was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes....

 (1744) showed on their maps the name Lake Mistassins. Other spelling variations of this Native American designation included: Mistacinnee, Mistacsinney, Mistasinne, Mistasinia, etc..

In 1808, James McKenzie of the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...

 used the name Lake Mistassini in his writings, the first use of the name in its current form. Nevertheless, other variants persisted still long after: for instance, the explorer James Clouston inscribed Mistassinnie in his diary of 1820, while the geologist Robert Bell mentioned in 1880 the name Misstissinny. Yet, thereafter Mistassini became the accepted form, as evidenced by the map of the province of Quebec drawn in 1880 by Taché, and the expedition report published by Albert Peter Low
Albert Peter Low
Albert Peter Low was a Canadian geologist, explorer and athlete. His explorations of 1893–1895 were important in declaring Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic, and eventually defining the border between Quebec and Labrador....

 in 1885, and in his Annual Report of 1900, Bell also adopted the current spelling.

History

The existence of this large lake was known to French explorers for a long time before actually reaching it. Even Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....

 knew of it in 1603. Lake Mistassini was finally discovered by Europeans in 1663 as part of an expedition ordered by Governor D'Avaugour
Pierre Dubois Davaugour
Baron Pierre Dubois Davaugour was the French governor of New France from 1661 to 1663. He was related to the old family who were counts and dukes of Penthièvre.- External links :** - Catholic Encyclopedia article...

 and led by Guillaume Couture
Guillaume Couture
Guillaume Cousture was a citizen of New France. During his life he was a lay missonary with the Jesuits, a survivor of torture, a member of an Iroquois council, a translator, a diplomat, a militia captain, and a lay leader among the colonists of the Pointe-Lévy in the Seigneury of Lauzon...

 (first settler of Pointe-Lévy (Lévis
Lévis, Quebec
Lévis is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A ferry links Old Quebec with Old Lévis, and two bridges, the Quebec Bridge and the Pierre Laporte Bridge, connect western Lévis with Quebec City. The Société de transport de...

) and hero of New-France). He was accompanied by Pierre Duquet and Jean Langlois, as well as by native American guides; the whole group consisting of a fleet of 44 canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

s. They went up the Saguenay River
Saguenay River
The Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec, Canada.It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east, and passes the city of Saguenay. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River at Tadoussac....

, reached Lake Mistassini and continued on the Rupert River which flows to the Hudson Bay.

Thereafter, Lake Mistassini became an important step along the route from the Saguenay to James Bay. In 1672, Charles Albanel
Charles Albanel
Charles Albanel was a Freech missionary explorer in Canada, and Jesuit priest. In 1649, he arrived in Canada, at Tadoussac. In 1672, at the time when the Hudson's Bay Company was beginning operations, he was a leader of a French party that went by the Saguenay River, Lake Mistassini, and the...

 crossed the lake in an official mission. On June 18, 1672, he wrote: "we entered the great Lake Mistassirinins [...]; this Lake is named for the rocks with which it abounds, which are of prodigious size." That same year, a fur trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

 was established on the lake, the location of which shifted from time to time until 1821 when it was established at the present site of the village Mistissini
Mistissini, Quebec
Mistissini is a Cree town located in the south-east corner of the largest natural lake in Quebec, Lake Mistassini . The town is inside the boundaries of the Baie-James Municipality, and is the largest Cree community with a population of around 4000 people...

.
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