La Macaza Town Hall Historical Mural

This magnificent fresco was painted in 2012 by the internationally renowned Saoul Ruano Guillen. He chose to live in La Macaza, the town whose appellation is an adaptation of Macassa, meaning “the fighter”, the name of an Indigenous person who lived on the lake. 

In 1870, the Hamilton Brothers company established a forest farm in the region to supply forest worksites. Food production played a key role, and gave rise to the expression the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The first settler, Léon Ouellette, arrived in 1886. First, a sawmill was built, followed by a school, a post office, a church, a general store, and a hotel.

Originally a farming community, La Macaza primarily lived off forest development afterwards. Until 1904, the village was located at the confluence of the cold and hot streams of the Rivière Macaza.

It was into the hot stream that Curé Labelle fell, when the bridge partially gave way under the weight of the horses pulling his cart. “He floated incredibly, across the water and everything, and found himself taking a bath he had surely not planned as part of his expedition”, wrote La Presse in an article published in March 1908. 

In 1896, 50 to 60 people lived in the village. Today, there are approximately 1,000 inhabitants, nearly one-third of whom are vacationers. The locals and vacationers alike love the natural surroundings and the five major lakes found on the territory. 

The Municipality of La Macaza is a part of the Route du Lièvre Rouge, a tourist tour developed by the Société d’histoire et de généalogie des Hautes-Laurentides. 

Access the Route du Lièvre Rouge.