It’s that time of year again – Halloween is just around the corner and our imaginations are turning to the spooky and supernatural. And what better way to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve than to combine it with some backroad exploring? All over Quebec, there are ghost towns that lie in various stages of decay – some are hardly recognizable, while others are even preserved as tourist attractions. While we are not saying that all of these places are haunted, you never know what you may find while visiting the Quebec ghost towns we have listed below (with the help of our Quebec Backroad GPS Maps, of course). Crystal Falls Found midway between St. Jovite and Arundel along the winding, tree-lined Route 327, Crystal Falls was once home to a post office, school, cheese factory, a combination water-powered grist and sawmill and a Presbyterian church. These days, all that is left of the settlement is the church, with most of the remaining buildings having been slowly reclaimed by the encroaching woods. Travellers driving Route 327 at night will notice the lit-up church, which illuminates this otherwise dark and foreboding stretch of highway. Source: http://gardnernews.org/ Gagnon Located in Quebec’s snowy, wind-swept far north, Gagnon was a town with no road access that nevertheless managed to swell to a population of over 4,000 people at its peak. Thanks to the success of the nearby iron ore mines, this isolated outpost grew to include an airport, churches, schools, an arena and a hospital. But the good times never last, and the closing of one of the mines follows by the iron crisis of 1982 dealt a death blow to the community. By 1985, the town was completely abandoned and dismantled. Today, all that remains of this Quebec ghost town is the airport runway and the main street, which is now part of route 389. This section of highway still features the town’s medians, sidewalks and sewers, which creates an eerie sight for backroad travellers as it is hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest active community. Goose Village In the mid 1840s, the Irish Potato Famine was at its peak, and tens of thousands of people were boarding ships bound for Canada and the United States to escape the grim state of affairs at home. In Montreal, the landing point for Irish immigrants was at a place called Windmill Point (later Goose Village and Victoriatown). Unfortunately, most of those who arrived never made it past Windmill Point. The ships were so rampant with typhus that they became known as “Coffin Ships,” and Windmill Point was turned into a quarantine zone. The sick were placed in crude wooden “fever sheds,” with many thousands dying and being buried on site. Their remains would be uncovered in 1859 during the construction of the Victoria Bridge, and a large black rock was placed on the site to honour the victims. Eventually, the area was settled by Italian Canadians, and by 1960 there were over 300 families living in Goose Village, which was also home to a school, fire station, store and café. The city government, however, regarded the site as an eyesore and, citing unsanitary conditions and poor building management, the village was bulldozed in the lead-up to Expo 67. Today, the black rock is the only thing left to remind passers-by of this Quebec ghost town’s unique and troubled history. Source: topoesie.com Joutel Originally established in the mid-1060s, Joutel was built to house workers at the nearby gold mine and at one point had nearly 100 homes along with restaurants, a grocery store, hotel, post office, school, health centre, bank and more. By the early 1990s, the reserves in the mine were beginning to run out, and it wasn’t long before it was shut down completely. With the closing of the mine came the abandonment of the town, and in 1998 the houses were removed and the remaining structures were levelled. Backroad explorers who make their way to this Quebec ghost town will be greeted by a lonely welcome sign and a grid of roads and sidewalks that is slowly fading away into the surrounding landscape. Saint-Jean Vianney Saint-Jean Vianney was established in 1935, unbeknownst to the village’s founders, on a bed of highly unstable clay. This wasn’t an issue for the peaceful little town until one particularly wet spring in 1971, when heavier-than-normal rainfall caused the clay beneath the town to liquefy. Residents reported seeing cracks appear in the city streets and house foundations begin to drop several inches into the ground, along with the sound of running water coming from an unidentifiable source. For weeks, it was business as usual in Sain-Jean Vianney, despite these warning signs. Then, on the night of May 4th, tragedy struck when the earth beneath part of the village gave way completely, forming a huge canyon through which a river of liquefied clay flowed unimpeded for more than an hour, washing some 41 homes away with it. By the time the landslide ended, 31 people were dead and a crater some 324,000 square meters (3,490,000 square feet) lay in its wake. Survivors of the landslide were resettled to the nearby town of Arvida. Today, a park in nearby Shipshaw and a museum exhibit in Saguenay commemorate the deadly event which turned this village into another Quebec ghost town. Saint-Octave-de-l’Avenir Located in the beautiful and sparsely populated Gaspésie interior, this town was founded as part of Irénée Vautrin’s plan to colonize the region, and to create relief from the economic depression of the 1930s. While the town peaked at 1,200 residents in 1937, the population slowly declined after that and it was eventually abandoned in 1971. Despite its hopeful origins (Avenir is French for future), this is yet another Quebec ghost town that has faded into the past. Shrewsbury Shrewsbury and the nearby township of Gore were originally settled by Irish immigrants who were escaping the hardships of the potato famine back home. Although those that arrived here managed escape the suffering of the old country, their new lives would be no walk in the park. The pioneers faced an untamed wilderness, and eked out a living cutting and burning trees to turn into potash, which they then had to carry to Montreal, a two-day, 105 km (65 mi) journey. In 1858, a church was erected, which served to legitimize Shrewsbury as an established community. But, in the 1880s, a lumber depression and a wave of disease including diphtheria and measles began to shrink the population. The village was abandoned during the early 20th century, and for many years all that remained of Shrewsbury was the church. A lone, decrepit church standing among the Quebec woods fuelled the imagination of ghost hunters, and this site was widely regarded as being haunted. It even became a magnet for practitioners of witchcraft, who would conduct nighttime séances in the adjacent graveyard. Throughout these activities, gravestones went missing and were vandalized, and the church was officially deconsecrated in 2010. Just four years later, the church mysteriously burned down, taking all of its supernatural secrets with it. Val-Jalbert Founded in 1901, Val-Jalbert was strategically located between two large waterfalls which provided power for the pulp and paper mill that the town was built around. At this time, there was a high demand for newsprint in Britain and America, and business was excellent. Val-Jalbert became a model of modern urban planning for the period with electricity, sewers, waterworks and telephone services. In the 1920s, however, the demand for pulp fell, and the Val-Jalbert plant ceased operations completely by 1927. Hoping for a reversal in the market, many unemployed workers stayed in the town for another two years, when the homes were ordered to be boarded up and it became clear that prosperity would not return to the town. The town lay abandoned until the 1960s, when the Quebec government decided to develop it as a tourist attraction. Val-Jalbert is now one of Canada’s most well-preserved ghost towns with restored buildings, guided tours and much more. Source: valjalbert.com Venosta While not technically a ghost town, as there are still people living here, there are many abandoned historic buildings, making it a worthwhile stopover for ghost town hunters. Heritage buildings include an old hotel, school, train station and numerous houses, all in various stages of decay and surrounded by lush countryside scenery. The settlement was originally founded by Irish and English immigrants and has a rich history of logging and agriculture that dates back to the 1800s. Source: flickriver.com/places/Canada/Quebec/Venosta There is no better tool for finding your way to these ghost towns than our Quebec GPS Backroad Maps. These maps feature our industry-leading topographic relief and shading along with all of the extra features you expect from a Backroad Mapbooks product, including 1,000s of Points of Interest and Adventure descriptions. Want more? Check out our Eastern Canada GPS Maps! Do you know of a Quebec ghost town that we left off of our list? Let us know in the comments below or share your own spooky adventures with us on Instagram using #brmblife for a chance to be featured on our feed and win prizes.
