Saint-Casimir, Quebec

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St-Casimir Church, September 2006

St-Casimir (elevation: 90 ft) is a small village in the Portneuf Regional County Municipality, Quebec of about 1800 people in the province of Québec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, half way between Québec City and Trois-Rivières.

It was founded in 1836 by people who came from Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade following to the east the Rivière Ste-Anne.

The name of St-Casimir was given in honor of Mr. Casimir Déry, a notary who paid for the construction of the church, which is in the top 10 of the most beautiful churches in the province of Québec.

Five rivers run in St-Casimir. The Riv. Ste-Anne, which is the principal, the Riv. Niagarette, the small Niagarette, the Riv. Blanche, and the Riv. Noire.

There is also a province-wide known cavern: The "Trou du Diable", which means "Devil's Hole". It is the second longest cave in Québec (980 m). It was formed by the former tributary of the Sainte-Anne river, which left behind a stream. Lots of tourists come to visit and go through it every summer.

On the morning of March 23rd 1997, five members of the Order of the Solar Temple took their own lives in St-Casimir. A small house exploded into flames, leaving behind five charred bodies for the police to pull from the rubble. Three teenagers -- 13, 14 and 16, the children of one of the couples that died in the fire —- are discovered in a shed behind the house, alive but heavily drugged.

In the summer of 1973, a wave on the Niagarette devastated a small area, where it joins the Ste-Anne river. A few houses were destroyed by the powerful water wave, due to strong rain, and debris that blocked for a few hours the small river.

Two provincial numbered roads go through St-Casimir: the 354 (east-west - from Ste-Anne de la Pérade to St-Raymond) and the 363 (south-north - from Deschambault to Lac-aux-Sables). Both roads lead to Autoroute 40, the Montreal-Québec City link on the north shore.

It is the place where poet Alain Grandbois was born in 1900.