Matapedia Valley

The Matapedia Valley was formed by the Chic-Choc Mountains of eastern Quebec and takes its name from the river that runs through it and the lake at its center. It lies in the southwest of the Gaspé Peninsula and stretches 375 kilometers, its land made up mostly of forest and agriculture and home to more than 20,000 people across some thirty municipalities. The Mi'kmaq people first settled the valley around 500 BCE, and French-Canadian settlement began in 1833 when Pierre Brochu moved to Lake Matapedia; further settlers arrived in the late nineteenth century as land clearing, agriculture and logging developed.