Friends of Chats Falls celebrate digs, youth engagement, and mill revival
Katharine Fletcher
Local Journalism Initiative
Published on www.pontiacjournal.com on July 2, 2025.
QUYON – Friends of Chats Falls is an organization dedicated to preserving lands surrounding the former Chats Rapids – an area immediately west of Quyon extending into Bristol, overlooking the Ottawa River. At the organization’s annual general meeting on June 26, held at the historic Egan Mill, MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller praised the group’s efforts as “critical work”. Attendees also explored the restored mill site—now being revived as a museum—and celebrated a year of archaeological discoveries and cultural preservation initiatives.
“The research and work the Friends have accomplished is critical so that the significance of the original falls is never forgotten. This story needs to be remembered. It played a huge role in the economic development of the timber trade in the Pontiac,” said Toller.
In 1846, Quyon’s “Dowd’s Mill” was erected alongside the Quyon River – but after several fires, today’s structure dates from 1906. It’s being rejuvenated as a museum by Isabelle Lajoie and Marc Bergeron. Recalling the site’s industrial history, they built a flour mill, where Bergeron assembled new Danish machinery. The couple aim to grind Pontiac-grown wheat and rye into flour.
After a tour led by Lajoie, everyone re-entered the heritage mill for the AGM.
President Deborah Powell conducted the meeting, with Vice-President Hope Cadieux standing in as Secretary and Treasurer Gabrielle Dupuis delivering the financial report.
The meeting’s highlight was Powell’s report of the annual archaeological dig at Quyon’s Pointe-Indienne. Students from Quyon’s Onslow Elementary School and École de la Vallée-des-Voyageurs, Gatineau’s Grande-Rivière High School, and Shawville’s Pontiac High School joined members of the public excavating the site under careful supervision. More digs are planned this year.
Funding for the Archéo-Pontiac project came from the Cultural Development Fund
of the MRC des-Collines de l’Outaouais and Caisse Populaire Desjardins, the
Municipality of Pontiac, and Société d’histoire de l’Outaouais.
Photos – Friends of Chats Falls President Deborah Powell delivers the 2024-2025 Activities Report at the organization’s AGM, June 26. (KF)
