Ashuapmushuan

The Ashuapmushuan flows from a lake of the same name through forested country to Lac Saint-Jean. Its Innu name evokes a place where hunters lie in wait for moose. The river descends through narrow valleys, with powerful rapids and waterfalls, including the great Chaudière Falls. Long before traders arrived, it formed part of a network of waterways used by the Indigenous peoples of the region.

In 1672 the Jesuit Charles Albanel travelled up the river on his way towards Hudson Bay. French fur traders established a post near Lake Ashuapmushuan around 1685, at a meeting of routes leading deeper into the interior. In 1732 the surveyor Joseph-Laurent Normandin followed the river with Ilnu guides. Their journeys traced a route that connected the St Lawrence and Lac Saint-Jean with the lands around James Bay.