Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette 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 part of the Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais Regional County Municipality

Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais Regional County Municipality, Quebec

Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of western Quebec, Canada. The region nearly encircles the City of Gatineau which is to the south...

, straddling the eastern banks of 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...

.

History

In 1841, the Township of Portland, named after the Isle of Portland

Isle of Portland

The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...

 in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England, was formed. From 1845 on, it was colonized by Irish and French Canadians, followed by Norwegians in 1860. A year later in 1861, the township was reorganized as a township municipality

Types of municipalities in Quebec

The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec....

. A post office followed in 1883. French priests established a parish in 1905, named after the French pilgrimage location Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette

Our Lady of La Salette

La Salette is a small mountaintop village near Grenoble, France. It is most noted for an apparition of the Virgin Mary that was reported in 1846 by two shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts of miraculous healings....

.

During the early morning hours of April 26, 1908, a deadly landslide killed at least 34 people while sending 15 homes into the Lievre River including the residence of then-mayor Camille Lapointe. As the river was blocked by mud and land, a wave was sent into the village damaging or destroying several other structures. The toll could have been larger as a few years before the event the closure of a mine forced over 200 families to leave the village. Other major landslides were recorded in the village, twice in 1900 and in 1912 where several key infrastructures were demolished and swept away. A major fire also destroyed a large section of the village in 1903.

In 1966, Portland was renamed to Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette. On January 1, 1975, it was merged into a new City of Buckingham. But because of public outcry, this merger didn't last long. In 1980, Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette regained its municipal autonomy.

Demographics

Demographics:

• Population in 2006: 774
• Population in 2001: 706
  • 2001 to 2006 population change: 9.6 %
• Population in 1996: 678
• Population in 1991: 658

Total private dwellings (excluding seasonal cottages): 335

Languages:

• English as first language: 20 %
• French as first language: 78 %
• Other as first language: 2 %