Chicoutimi

Chicoutimi stands where the Chicoutimi River joins the Saguenay, at the upper end of a deep fjord that runs down toward Tadoussac and the St Lawrence. Its Innu name is usually rendered 'the end of deep water', marking the point where the wide tidal channel gives way to narrower inland waters. Innu families had used the Saguenay and its tributaries for centuries as routes to hunting grounds in the interior. French colonists set up a fur-trading post here in 1676, linking the trapping country with the lower St Lawrence. As furs moved toward the Great Lakes, the post lost importance and had closed by the late eighteenth century.