Chochocouane Hills

The Chochocouane Hills rise in the wooded Canadian Shield country of western Quebec, north of the Ottawa River watershed. Ridges, lakes, muskeg and short stream valleys make the land difficult to cross except by following water. The hills form part of the forest territory of Réservoir-Dozois.

The name is Algonquin and was recorded in several spellings during the nineteenth century. It is commonly explained as the “river where the ice cracks,” from roots describing smooth ice. That name captures the seasonal hazard of winter travel, when frozen lakes could serve as roads and then break under thaw.

Algonquin families used the network of lakes and rivers for hunting, fishing and moving between seasonal camps. Birchbark canoes in summer and snowshoes or sledges in winter made the drainage more important than any single hill. Fur traders later adopted the same corridors, but the country remained sparsely occupied and dependent on water routes.

Their ridges separate drainages without forming an easy border, while lakes provide both access and the risk recorded in the Algonquin place name.