Croche River (La Tuque)

Croche River

Rivière Croche
Basin countries
Location
Length 150 km (93 mi)[1]
Mouth elevation 151 m (495 ft)
Avg. discharge La Tuque
Basin area 1,968 km2 (760 sq mi)Saint-Maurice River
River system St. Lawrence River

The Croche River flows in the regions of Haute-Mauricie and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in the province of Quebec, Canada. Croche River is one of the five largest tributaries of the Saint-Maurice River.

Geography

The river is 150 km long. Its source is 100 km north of La Tuque and it flows south through a narrow valley forming interconnecting lakes and many bends, which characterize its name. Many small rivers feed the northern half of the river's course. For many segments of its path, the river flows through many rapids, waterfalls and cascades.

On its last 20 kilometers, the river forms a valley rich in alluvium in agricultural zone, before throwing in the Saint-Maurice River at 5 km North of La Tuque.

History

Formerly a deciduous forest dominated vegetation in the downstream part of the watershed of the Croche river, because the soil was rich in alluvium. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the watershed of the river was cleared to make way for agriculture. Several farms were established. Despite its shallow depth, the river was used to float logs to feed sawmills and pulp mills located in the La Tuque and downstream on the Saint-Maurice River.

Toponymy

The name «Croche River» was formalized on December 5, 1968 at the Bank of place names of Commission de toponymie du Québec (Geographical Names Board of Québec).

According to the Commission de toponymie du Québec (Geographical Names Board of Québec) in 1863, Stanislas Drapeau mentioned in his notes the name of "rivière Croche" (Croche River). The land surveyor Du Tremblay described it as well in 1873. In popular language, the term "Croche" often refers to a serpentine path makes a hook or streamers. The toponyms "Croche" and Crooked is widespread in the places names in Quebec, including 102 lakes that are so designated. Given that many rivers used the word «Croche» in their names, the authorities replaced some of them with more distinctive names. The number of 145, these ancient lakes Croche or Crooked particular received or sometimes taken other specific descriptive French terms (Crochet, "Crochu" (Hooked), "Sinueux" (Curvy), "Coudé" (Bent), etc.). Surnames and forenames (Gabriel Forster, Laflamme, Daniel, Colette, etc..) or Native American names (Manitou, Wapizagonke, Kiwatin, Causapscal, etc.).

In addition, the Bank of place names of Quebec includes five "Croche rivers", a small Croche river and a small North Croche, as well as "rivière crochue" (Croche River). Seven "Croche Rivers" or "Crooked rivers" received or taken other names such as "Lecompte river", Auriac river, "du Gouffre Sud-Ouest" and Camitogama. The "Croche" term is present in the names of three populated places in Quebec: Lac-Croche, Quebec in Matawinie, La Croche, "Rivière Croche" (Croche River) in Mauricie[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Length notes = "Recherche de noms de lieux: Croche River". Commission de toponymie du Québec (online since November 14, 2008). Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  2. ↑ Names and places of Quebec, the work of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (Geographical Names Board of Québec) published in 1994 and 1996 in the form of an illustrated dictionary printed, and in that of a CD produced by Micro-Intel in 1997 from this dictionary.

External links