Article

Village Historique de Val-Jalbert

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited December 14, 2021

Village Historique de Val-Jalbert, Quebec, 5 km east of Roberval on the shores of Lac Saint-Jean. A ghost town and a very beautiful park, Val-Jalbert since 1960 has become a major attraction in the Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean region.

Val-Jalbert (Historical Village)

History

The village of Val-Jalbert was born at the turn of the 20th century when a pulp and paper mill was built at the foot of the falls on the Rivière Ouiatchouane in 1901. The company village, very modern for its day, grew rapidly and had 1,000 inhabitants by the mid-1920s. In 1927, however, Quebec Pulp and Paper Mills, the plant's final owner, closed it down and soon Val-Jalbert was deserted. (See Pulp and Paper Industry.)

Touristic Attraction

The Quebec government bought the site in 1942 and in 1960 decided to make it a park. The Société des etablissements de plein air du Québec (SEPAQ) took over ownership in 1987. The abandoned village and mill, important parts of Canada's industrial and urban heritage, now draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.