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n 1894, Dr. Camille Laviolette of Laval University convinced the Provincial Government to set aside a large parcel of Laurentian property for the creation of a forestry reserve. His plan was to build a tuberculosis sanitarium in a completely protected environment. The proposal, originally drafted in 1893, was accepted in July 1894. Dr. Laviolette had studied in Paris, London and Berlin. He was a member of la Société Française d’Otologie et de Laryngologie de Paris, a specialist at l’Institution des Sourdes et Muettes, and was a medical doctor at the University of Laval. He planned the ‘Sanatorium d’Altitude pour la tuberculose’ which was to be situated only four miles from the St. Jovite railroad station on the south-east face of La Montagne Tremblante (Trembling Mountain). The “Act to establish the Trembling Mountain Park” was sanctioned on January 12, 1895. It set aside 14,750 acres for the forest reserve and an additional 400 acres on the summit of the mountain “to any persons or corporations who furnish sufficient sureties that they will erect and maintain such sanitarium...” The sanitarium was never built. But the act contained a curious stipulation. Clause 4 read “This act shall not affect any rights acquired under any license to cut timber or any lease to any person or to any fish and game club.” A short article some years later (1902) in the St. Jerome paper L’Avenir du Nord deplored the monopolisation and misuse of public lands for maintaining an exclusive fish and game club at Lac Tremblant. The article suggested that the club members had friends in high places and that the $50 per year cost was a gift: It was worth twice that amount.

Given the credentials of Dr. Richer, founder of the first tuberculosis sanitarium to open up in Ste. Agathe, and Dr. Laviolette’s less appropriate, albeit impressive, credentials, one might wonder if there ever was a sincere intention of building a sanitarium on the south-east face of Mont Tremblant. If the intentions were sincere, it is curious that Dr. Richer did not take advantage of the reserve of 400 acres that was set aside for that purpose. His hospital was open by 1899. Surely the planning started a few years before that.

Listed among the activities that Dr. Laviolette envisioned for his patients were fishing, hunting, bathing and canoeing in summer; music, parlour games, snow-shoeing, tobogganing, skating, hunting and ice fishing in winter. Skiing was notably absent.

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There is little evidence of skiing anywhere before 1910 and the arrival of Emile Cochand. At that time, Ste. Agathe had a mile-long bob-sled run that Mr. Cochand took charge of and anecdotal information suggests that kids were skiing on the same hill (Mont Calvert) on barrel staves. It is hard for us to imagine how few trees there were at that time. Pictures of the bob-sled run show huge open fields and the occasional farmer’s fences. Where there are trees, they look sparse and are generally restricted to hilltops. According to Georges Lortie, Mont Calvert was on the St. Aubin farm, the third farm south of the church. This hill is also mentioned as the location of the first TB sanitarium. Mr. Lortie told me that his father and grandfather called the road going up towards Trout Lake Côte de l’hôpital, even though the hospital burned to the ground in 1902.

Among other peculiarities associated with Mont Tremblant is the idea that its name is translated from the Algonkian Manitonga Soutana. While not discrediting the legend of the trembling mountain, the translation itself may be a colourful boast on the part of the current Mont Tremblant promoters. It is hard to find speakers of Algonkian who will confirm the translation. The word Manitonga contains most of the word Manitou which refers to spirit, perhaps the great spirit, as in Manitoba, which means the breath of the great spirit. Soutana is part of a word that refers to a valley. It is more likely that the term referred to the region than to the mountain itself.

Whatever the facts, by the turn of the century our whole region was booming. Curé Labelle’s vision that the railroad would save our area turned out to be true and the Laurentians looked like where the 20^th century would happen.

Joseph Graham has written a book that features a select number of stories of Laurentian places and how they got their names. To learn more, click here.

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This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the author. © Joseph Graham