Sanmaur, Quebec

Sanmaur (a contraction of Saint-Maurice^[1]) is a village in the Haute-Mauricie, in La Tuque, in Québec, Canada. Sanmaur was incorporated into the city of La Tuque in 2003.

History[]

This village was established in 1914 by the company responsible for the construction of the La Loutre Dam.^[2] Sanmaur was supported in 1940 by the Brown Corporation, a logging company operating in Mauricie.^[3]

Sanmaur is located on the banks of the Saint-Maurice River in front of Wemotaci and near the mouth of the Manouane River.

Geography[]

Sanmaur is located in the forest on the west bank of the Saint-Maurice River in front of Wemotaci and south of the mouth of Manouane River. A bridge spans the Saint-Maurice River, connecting Sanmaur and Wemotaci, built 500 metres (1,600 ft) downstream of an island measuring 2.4 km long and 0.65 km maximum width. This bridge is located 5.5 km upstream of the dam falls Allard.

Sanmaur is located along Forest Road 25, which goes to the west along the south shore of Manouane River (La Tuque). At one kilometer west of Sanmaur, the road linking Parent and Wemotaci crosses a bridge over the Manouane River and joins Route 25.

Sanmaur and Wemotaci are located 65 km (measured by water) downstream of the Gouin Reservoir dam. The latter dam is located 3.8 km (measured by water) upstream of the old La Loutre Dam.^[4]

References[]

^ "Commission de toponymie du Québec - Bank of places names - Sanmaur".
^ The first infrastructure was built on La Loutre rapids, in 1916-1917. The Shawinigan Water and Power Company decided to raise the level of the reservoir in 1948. It was also decided to divert the headwaters of two rivers flowing naturally to the James Bay and make them discharge into the St. Lawrence River through the Saint-Maurice River. These two rivers are and . A series of dams and canals were necessary to enable to derive the waters of these rivers.
^ "Brown Corporation in Sanmaur". Bases de données en histoire de la Mauricie (in French).
^ Geographical measurements done on February 4, 2014 by historian Gaétan Veillette (Saint-Hubert, QC) using the website Google Map.