Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Mégantic

Town, County and Lake

Megantic, a county in southern Quebec, surrounded by the counties of Beauce, Frontenac, Wolfe, Arthabaska, and Lotbinière. The name is derived from the Abnaki word Namesokanjik, meaning "where they preserve fish." The county is traversed by the Canadian National and Quebec Central Railways; and contains important asbestos deposits. County town, Inverness . Pop. 40,357 [in 1948].

Megantic, a town in Frontenac county, Quebec, on the shore of lake Megantic and on the Canadian Pacific and Quebec Central Railways. It was founded in 1884, and took its name from the lake. It is an important railway, lumbering, and farming centre, and its manufacturing establishments include a paper-printing plant, a sash-and-door factory, saw mills, and a butter, cheese, and cheese box factory. It has airport training grounds, a college, a convent, and a weekly French newspaper (L'Écho de Frontenac).

Megantic, lake, is in Frontenac county, Quebec. It is about nine miles long, with a breath varying from 1 to 2 miles, and it is very beautiful with many attractive bays. Megantic lake was crossed by missionary fathers, when in 1640, they adventured into surrounding forests. About 1700, it was the site of a large Abnaki [Abenaki]  village. Finally, in 1775, when Canada was invaded by American troops, Megantic lake was the camping place of Arnold's army. See Abbé Albert Gravel, Histoire du lac Mégantic (Sherbrooke, 1931).

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., pp 267-268.