| Lac aux Montagnais | |
| Pushpin Map: | Quebec |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Quebec |
| Location: | Lac-Jacques-Cartier (TNO), La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality, Capitale-Nationale |
| Coords: | 47.8847°N -71.8756°W |
| Lake Type: | Natural |
| Inflow: | (clockwise from the mouth) Ruisseaux riverains, décharge du lac Houlette, rivière aux Montagnais, ruisseau de l’Amitié.. |
| Outflow: | Rivière aux Montagnais |
| Basin Countries: | Canada |
| Length: | 4km (02miles) |
| Width: | 1km (01miles) |
| Area: | NaNkm2 |
| Depth: | NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) |
| Max-Depth: | NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) |
| Elevation: | 494m (1,621feet) |
The Lac aux Montagnais is a freshwater body at the head of the rivière aux Montagnais, in the unorganized territory of Lac-Jacques-Cartier, in the La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region of Capitale-Nationale, in the province, in Quebec, Canada. "Lac aux Montagnais" is located in the northwestern part of the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve.
Lac aux Montagnais is located between route 169 (connecting Quebec (city) to Alma) and route 155 (connecting La Tuque and Chambord). A forest road bypasses the northern part of the lake. Some secondary forest roads serve this area for forestry and recreational tourism activities.[1]
Forestry is the main economic activity in the sector; recreational tourism, second.
The surface of "Lac aux Montagnais" is usually frozen from the beginning of December to the end of March, however the safe circulation on the ice is generally made from mid-December to mid-March.
The main watersheds neighboring Lac aux Montagnais are:
Lac aux Montagnais has a length of, a width of and an altitude of . This lake is mainly fed by riverside streams, the outlet of Lake Houlette, the Montagnais river (coming from the south) and the Friendship stream. A peninsula attached to the north shore stretches to the south. A strip of land long on the east bank separates it from the Lac de l'Amitié.
The mouth of Lac aux Montagnais is located at the bottom of a bay at the extreme southeast of the lake, at:
From the mouth of Lac aux Montagnais, the current follows the course of:
The specific term “Montagnais” designates one of the indigenous nations of the Algonquian family in eastern Canada, today known as “Innu”. Before the arrival of the first French settlers, the Innu occupied a huge territory of in depth extending, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River, the city of Quebec (city) at Labrador Sea. On the south shore, their territory included the hydrographic basins of the Rivière du Loup and the Matane River. Already in 1892, the surveyor Henry O'Sullivan described the lake in these terms: “Lac Montagnais. It is a magnificent sheet of water with a circumference of more than six miles. Well provided with spotted trout ”. Today, permanent installations welcome vacationers, hunters and fishermen to this lake formerly frequented, no doubt, by the Innu in the vicinity of Lac Saint-Jean.[3]
The toponym lac aux Montagnais was formalized on December 5, 1968, by the Commission de toponymie du Québec.[4]