Val-Jalbert

Val-Jalbert was built in 1901 around a pulp mill powered by the Ouiatchouan falls, and it was a model company town for its day, with electricity and running water in the houses before most of Quebec had either. When the pulp market collapsed the mill closed in 1927, and by 1929 the last of the population had gone, leaving the houses, school, convent and mill standing. The village was preserved rather than demolished, and about seventy buildings remain, some restored and lived in as accommodation, others left as ruins with roofs open. The falls drop about seventy-two metres, higher than Niagara, with a cable car and stairs to the top.

History

Damase Jalbert of Lac-Bouchette founded the village in 1901 around a pulp mill driven by two waterfalls on the Ouiatchouan river, of 72 and 35 metres, to meet demand for newsprint in Britain and America; after his death in 1904 American investors laid it out as a planned town with electricity, sewers, running water and telephones, and in 1909 it passed to the Chicoutimi Pulp Company. The mill stopped in 1927, the company boarded up the houses in 1929, the government took over the site in 1949, it opened to the public in the 1960s and was designated a heritage site in 1996 (Wikipedia, Val-Jalbert).

What to look for

• The abandoned houses - streets of company housing left as they were.
• The Ouiatchouan falls - a seventy-two metre drop above the village.
• The mill ruins - the pulp mill that built and then ended the town.
• The restored buildings - the convent, school and general store back in use.

When to go

June to September for full operation; the site opens with reduced access in shoulder months and closes in winter. The cable car runs in season only.

Before you go

Closed for the winter. Some houses are ruins seen from outside only. The site is spread out with a lot of walking, though a trolley runs.

Nearby

Lac Saint-Jean surrounds; Roberval lies south.

Key facts