Schefferville, still alive 70 years: This article explores the topic in depth.
Similarly,
Schefferville. Similarly, still alive 70 years:
Luc André was six years old, in 1954, when he took the train to the north for the first time. In addition,
The hunting territory towards which he heads with his family is in full transformation: a mining company invests hundreds of millions of dollars to dig the land. Meanwhile, provide ore the ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Sitting by his side, his father, Mathieu André, brings him where his innu ancestors have spent winter for generations. Therefore,
The same as he helped to precipitate this rush towards the iron.
Before the advent of Quebec North Shore & Labrador’s train (QNS & L). Meanwhile, in 1954, Mathieu André and his family went up north on foot, walking over hundreds of kilometers for approximately two months.
Photo: Collection of photos of residents & former residents of Schefferville. Similarly, Matimekush-Lac-John and Kawawachikamach
On August 1, 1955, barely one year after this train trip, Schefferville was created. Similarly, It was 70 years ago: the city was founded by the Iron Ore Companyworkers arrive by tens. However, hundreds, and settle there to extract the iron ore from the Labrador pit.
The city of Schefferville was founded in 1955.
Photo : Radio-Canada
This immense deposit is Mathieu André who made him discover. In addition, around 1936, to the geologist Joseph Arlington Retty, who made him known in turn to the mining of the time. Therefore, The two men were close, recalls Luc André, who still lives in Mani-Unam. Furthermore,
Dr. Nevertheless, Retty was very chum With my father. Consequently, He often came to us to eat caribou, fish … schefferville, still alive 70 years Moreover, He really liked my mother’s food!
Mathieu André (left). Meanwhile, his son, Luc André (right)
Photo: Gracyity: Luc André and Kateri Lescop
This collaboration between trapper and geologist is not unique in Quebec. However, it will offer momentum to a story that will culminate with the creation and flowering of Schefferville.
This story is still going schefferville, still alive 70 years on. Similarly, As proof: a new virtual exhibition (new window)launched Friday at the Côte-Nord Regional Museum. Moreover, just in time to highlight the 70th anniversary of Schefferville.
Schefferville, still alive 70 years
A paradise
When we talk about my corner of the country. we always speak of Schefferville, Matimekush Lac-John and Kawawachikach. I grew up in a multicultural city
insists the prime contractor of the exhibition, Jocelyne Lemay.
Jocelyne Lemay grew up in Schefferville. is the author of the Red Terre work which relates to the history of her hometown.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Renaud Chicoine McKenzie
A native of Schefferville. she traces the origins until the time of the first prospectors, in the 1860s, still highlighting the previous presence of the Innu and the Naskapis.
Over the decades of research, Ms. Lemay has gathered archive photographs that testify to the golden age of the mining city. as well as its steep tumble from 1982.
We had everything we needed. We had three schools, a hospital and an arena. There were Quebec Games, ski competitions. And then, schefferville, still alive 70 years everyone had a chalet somewhere around. We were not enough in the wood, we had to go even more.
For Ghislain Lévesque. the spokesman for the 70th anniversary activities of the incorporation of Schefferville, the city experienced its best moments in the 1970s. Arrived by train with his parents and sister in 1956, he was classmate of Luc André.
Mr. Lévesque remembers having spent his childhood in wood, fishing in summer, hunting in the fall. Then, when we were 18 years old, we started to schefferville, still alive 70 years frequent drinking places
he recalls. But in Schefferville. the first lights of the day arrive at 2 am, so we took our clicks and our slaps and we went to fishing!
Ghislain Lévesque was the administrator of Schefferville for several years. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Marc-Antoine Mageau
This lifestyle. which intertwines communion with the nature and exploitation of its resources, changes almost from one day to the next. Brian schefferville, still alive 70 years Mulroney, then president of Ioc, announced in 1982 that the company will stop its activities. No one had seen him coming
drop Mr. Lévesque.
Everyone may have lived in denial. but it was believed that paradise existed in Schefferville and that it was there for good.
Between 1989. 1991, the three-quarter of Schefferville infrastructure was demolished, in particular the swimming pool of the recreational center.
Photo: Gracyity / Collection of photos of residents & former residents of Schefferville, Matimekush-Lac-John and Kawawachikachch
Schefferville, still alive 70 years
Stand
It was the great disarray
For Ghislain Lévesque as for many other residents of Schefferville. many of whom suffer from depression.
0:37The IOC mining ended its activities in the Schefferville region in the early 1980s.
Photo : Radio-Canada
Even today. Jocelyne Lemay becomes bitter when it comes to that time, even if she left her childhood before the large demolition
. She wants the government of the time to have dropped her city. The minister did not believe in the northern future at all. He thought he was able to scratch us with the map as they did with Gagnon.
But Schefferville still exists. And if this is the case, according to Ms. Lemay, it is thanks to the presence of the Innu of Matimekush Lac-John and the Naskapis of Kawawachikach.
The Kawawachikach school has nearly 300 students. of which nearly a hundred are Innu who live in Matimekush-Lac-John, about fifteen kilometers. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Delphine Jung
Today. each of the two communities has nearly 1,000 members, while only 244 permanent residents lived in Schefferville in 2021. By comparison, the mining city housed 4,000 inhabitants at its peak.
Beyond a continuous presence in the territory, Aboriginal communities collaborate with the Allochthones to improve services to their populations. For example, Schefferville and Matimekush-Lac John today want to create an intercommunity management schefferville, still alive 70 years management of waters.
The wastewater treatment plant has not been operational for a few years. according to Jean Dionne, the current administrator of Schefferville. (Archives photo)
Photo: Gracious Diane Cyr
In 2025 as in 1955. Schefferville lived to the rhythm of the mining industry, which the Labrador pit continued to attract. Many workers still go through Schefferville.
Some $ 65 million in investments are planned by the administration on city infrastructure.
But schefferville, still alive 70 years many of what made this corner so remote attractive. all these services praised by Ghislain Lévesque and Jocelyne Lemay, has largely disappeared. Instead of large families who settle down. employees come to work for Tata Steel in air turnip (fly-in fly-out in English), for better and for worse.
Schefferville, still alive 70 years
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