Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada. It includes the city of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's Na ...

, the municipality of Val-des-Monts and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

opposite Canada's capital,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

. It has a land area of and its population was 382,604 inhabitants as of the 2016 Census.

History

The name of the region comes from the French name for the Ottawa River, which in turn comes from the French name for the Indigenous

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They h ...

that lived near the region. Prior to European arrival in the region, the areas along the Ottawa River were commonly used by various tribes to trade and gather. The oldest European settlement in the region is Hull (now a neighbourhood of Gatineau) which was founded in 1800 by

Philemon Wright Philemon Wright (September 3, 1760 – June 3, 1839) was a farmer, lumberman and entrepreneur who founded the Ottawa River Timber Trade in 1806. He was also founder of what he named Columbia Falls Village, mostly known as (or Wrightstown) an ...

as Wright's Town. The settlement quickly became involved in the lumber trade, which continued along the Ottawa River until the late 20th century. None of the original town buildings remain today, as they were destroyed in the 1900 Hull–Ottawa fire. Hull remained a city until 2002, when it was merged with several neighboring cities to form the current city of

Administrative divisions

Regional county municipalities

First Nations Reserves

Kitigan Zibi Kitigan Zibi (also known as River Desert, and designated as Maniwaki 18 until 1994) is a First Nations reserve of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, an Algonquin band. It is situated near the confluence of the Désert and Gatineau River ...

* Rapid Lake

Major communities

* Cantley * Chelsea *

Déléage Déléage () is a town and municipality in La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Gatineau River opposite Maniwaki. Deleage and Deléage are frequently used alternate s ...

* Gracefield * L'Ange-Gardien *

La Pêche La Pêche (, Quebec French pronunciation: ) is a municipality along both sides of the Gatineau River in Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada, about north of downtown Gatineau. Bo ...

Maniwaki Maniwaki is a town located north of Gatineau and north-west of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, Canada. The town is situated on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Route 105 and Route 107, not far south of Route 117 (Trans-Canada Highw ...

Mansfield-et-Pontefract Mansfield-et-Pontefract is a municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality of western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Ottawa River, northwest of Gatineau. It is the most populated municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Munic ...

* Papineauville *

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

* Saint-André-Avellin *

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Gr ...

* Val-des-Monts

School districts

Francophone

* Centre de services scolaire au Cœur-des-Vallées * Centre de services scolaire des Draveurs *

Centre de services scolaire des Hauts-Bois-de-l'Outaouais The ''Centre de services scolaire des Hauts-Bois-de-l'Outaouais'' (CSSHBO) is a school service centre that offers educational services for about 3,000 people in Outaouais, Quebec. It provides 19 primary schools, three secondary schools, and two ...

Centre de services scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais The Centre de services scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais (CSSPO) is one of 4 public school service centres operating in the Outaouais, Quebec. The CSSPO was created after the former Commission Scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais was abolis ...

Anglophone

* Western Québec School Board

References

External links

Portail régional de l'Outaouais
Official website
Répertoire des clubs de golf de la région de l'Outaouais
Canada geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Quebec-geo-stub