Trifter

If your forte is wild northwoods adventure the James Bay Road is just the place for you because it goes through some of the wildest country in Eastern North America. Its northern terminus is in Radisson Quebec. It begins at Matagami Quebec. The area has been noted for years for its fabulous hunting and fishing along with plenty of wilderness outfitters to serve you. The road begins at Matagami Quebec and ends 620 Kilometers north at Radisson. Although fully paved this is a true wilderness road with only one service station between Matagami and Radisson at Kilometer 381. The road isn’t for looking at roadside attractions and tourist traps because there are none. You’ll see billions of evergreens of the northern Quebec boreal forest and plenty of just plain nature. Once in a while you might pass an occasional car or truck, but don’t try to hold your breath between them this is one place without traffic jams. Any traffic jams would probably be caused by a moose or bear.

Radisson is a town that was special built in 1974 to house the workers on the James Bay project of Hydro-Quebec. The town itself depends on construction work being performed on the hydroelectric projects going on in its vicinity. Its population has ranged from a high of about 2,500 persons to its present population of about 500. At 53° 783N 77° 617W the town is located just about halfway between the northern and southern extremities of the Province of Quebec. Radisson is the northern most town in Quebec that isn’t settled totally by Native Peoples. The town itself is supplied with a hotel and a motel that are open all year and a campground that is open for summers only. There is much to be seen in the area as the town is only a short distance from the Robert Bourassa hydroelectric complex on the Le Grand river that empties into James Bay near the town of Radisson.

Most of the people living in Radisson are employed by Hydro Quebec, and its main subsidiary “Societe de l’ e’nergie de la Baie James. Others in the town are employed in the tourism business as much of the business in own besides Hydro Quebec is slanted towards serving the fishermen and hunters who flock to the immediate area. The town is where other visitors can go for a tour of the Robert Bourassa hydroelectric station. The town is the northern terminus of the James Bay Road that comes up from the town of Matagami Quebec 620 Kilometers to the South.

The Road from Matagami north to Radisson is fully paved and is maintained during the winter months. There are no services to be had on this highway that belongs to Hydro Quebec who built the road during the construction of their power stations near Radisson. The roadway was built to accommodate loads of up to 500 tonnes for some of the equipment installed at the hydroelectric stations. There is an exception to the no services rule; there is a service station at Kilometer 381 with a hotel motel and a campground that is open during the summer. Along the James Bay highway there are several large river crossings with accompanying rapids the most scenic is the rapids along the Rupert River which will end in 2009 as a result of the river being diverted so its waters flow into the LeGrande River project.

The Province of Quebec started looking at the hydroelectric potential of Northwestern Quebec during the 1950’s but it wasn’t until the election of Robert Bourassa as Premier of Quebec unveiled the project on April 30, 1971 amidst much opposition from both environmentalists and the native people inhabiting the area under consideration. Agreements were finally reached with these groups in the early 1970s although the Cree Indians were not told of the project until after the James Bay Highway construction had already started. In later years a cash settlement of 150 million dollars was reached between the Cree and the Inuit that was negotiated with the Province of Quebec by Cree chief Billy Diamond.

The project covers an area the size of the state of New York and supplies power as far away as New York City with a high tension line coming down the east side of the Hudson River Valley. The project is laced with superlatives it is five times the size of the Niagara Falls Project. A total of 250 million dollars was spent just on financial compensation for the right to develop the hydroelectric resources of Northern Quebec to the First Nation Peoples. It is one of the largest hydroelectric projects on Earth.

James Bay itself is an embayment on the southern end of Hudson Bay with its area shared by two provinces of Canada. Ontario and Quebec share the land shores of the bay and the new Canadian territory of Nunavut holds the islands. Both Hudson Bay named after Henry Hudson its discoverer and James Baynamed after an early explorer for the British. Both bays came to the attention of the British in 1610 when discovered by Henry Hudson. The land surrounding both bays became Prince Rupert’s Land a favorite of the British king Charles II. It was also the land upon which the Gentlemen Adventurers of Hudson’s Bay Company was formed by Pierre Espirit Radisson and Medard de Grossiliers who convinced Prince Rupert of Bavaria that money could be had in trading for the furs and mineral wealth of the Hudson – James Bay region. The consequence of this that the British got a foothold in northern Quebec, but French traders from down south eventually caused them to concentrate their efforts onto the Western shore of Hudson Bay. The other consequence is that the native peoples to this day speak English; although some of the young people are learning to speak French as a third language.

References:

James Bay, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bay

Radisson Quebec, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radisson,_Quebec

James Bay Road, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_de_la_Baie_James