Abenakis Springs rest area

This older photo shows a balustrade at the top of the tower with only four floors. Of all these facilities, only the large white house remains, hidden behind the trees in the photo. This was where the owners of the hotel lived. You can still see this house at 232 rang Grande Terre. There is also a small gray building that houses the suction pumps to supply mineral water to the tankers trucks that always come to collect it.

This retouched photo gives us a good impression of the hotel's bright dining room.

In this photo, we see in the foreground one of the two kiosks housing the water sources. On the right is the bottling plant, and in the background on the left is the Abenakis Springs Hotel.

The boardwalk goes to the two water kiosks. One contained fresh water and the other salt water.

A curious natural phenomenon is found here: water sources with therapeutic virtues are at the origin of the name and the fame of the hotel. 

Indeed, a few tens of meters from the hotel, on the other side of the road, are two sources: one being fresh water while another source of water, salty this time, is just a few steps away. 

This place was known to the First Nations long before it was developed for tourist purposes. 

A three-storey building, part of which we see in the photo, was used for bottling mineral water. 

Two kiosks connected by a wooden sidewalk made it possible to drink from the water fountains which were open to the public until the 1960s, but were prohibited for health reasons.This bottling plant burned down in 1975 and the water sources are no longer accessible to the public. 

But Abenakis mineral water can still be found in stores.

The spring water bottling plant. Observe the crates stacked in the carts.

This photo was taken a few years ago. The house is neo-classical in style and was built around 1812.

There is a lot to say about this place! 

Where the shelter covering the picnic table is located, imagine a hotel with a frontage of 125 feet and a depth of about 100 feet, with a central 4-storey tower, a wooden gallery, a tennis in the front as well as large trees offering shade. It was the Abenakis Springs hotel which was present here for about 50 years, from the end of the 1880s until 1943.

This beautiful building housed tourists from Canada and the United States who came to treat themselves to a health cure, attracted by the mineral water baths from the springs located proximity. All in a refreshing environment, far from the city.

The hotel was only open in the summer, but one of its outbuildings served as accommodation for hunters during the fall. To the rear were numerous outbuildings almost as imposing as the main building. 

Right next to the current parking area, there was a two-floors annex which was used at first, to house the excess of residents of the hotel, then converted into a dance floor, before be used by the Abenakis mineral water bottling plant until 1975.

On the other side of the road, in the actual field, were two kiosks housing the sources of water. A wooden sidewalk made it possible to drink from the fountains, which was accessible to the public until the 1960s. 

The Abenakis Springs hotel gradually ceased its activities and was finally demolished in 1943. The bottling plant was destroyed by fire in 1975. But the mineral water continues to be collected by pumps and is always found at the store. 

Stand at the corner of rang Grande Terre and rang Bois-de-Maska and look to the south-east, towards the village of Saint-François-du-Lac: you will see a house made of stone. It bears the name “Maison Joseph Courchesne” in honor of its builder who erected it on this spot around 1812. 

It is classified for its heritage value and is listed in the register of cultural heritage of Quebec.

It also has historical value since its first owner, Joseph Courchesne, was a patriot and battalion leader during the rebellions of 1837-38. 

The story goes that patriots found refuge there when they wanted to hide from British troops. Many of them were captured and then arrested, but Courchesne would have remained hidden in his cellar while waiting for the departure of the English soldiers, then fled towards Trois-Rivières on wooden skates, on the frozen river.

The Courchesnes owned another ancestral home and a farm a little further toward the village. In the early 1960s, they were ceded to the Franciscans to establish a center of Franciscans life there. 

The “Plein Champ” summer camp was active there until the end of the 1990s. Today, the presence of the Franciscans is still very visible in this place with the hermitage called Maison Hosanna and, from across the road, a small chapel behind a large crucifix.

A little anecdote: the building that now serves as a chapel was once the no.8 Schoolhouse.

CÔTÉ, Jean-Luc. Pierreville retrouvé... en photos : avec un bref regard sur Saint-François-du-Lac, La Baie-du-Febvre, Odanak et Notre-Dame-de-Pierreville, Pierreville, La Société  historique de la Région de Pierreville, 1987.

LEMIRE, Gilbert. Sur les bords de la riviève Saint-François, Saint-François-du-Lac 1990 2000, Imprimerie de la Rive-Sud, Nicolet, 2005.

BAnQ. Abenaki Springs : Canada’s popular summer resort. 1 microfiche, consultation sur place. (also available in Canadiana.)                

BAnQ numérique : Gazette officielle du Québec, 17 février 1900, samedi 17 (no 7)

BAnQ numérique. La Patrie, 7 octobre 1956, Édition nationale.

HUDON-BEAUDET, Florence. Saint-François-du-Lac 1673-1998, Saint-François-du-Lac, 1999, 703 p.

CULTURE ET COMMUNICATION QUÉBEC. Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Maison Joseph Courchesne. 

Photo Credits:

Abenakis Springs Hotel: Québec, s.n. Abenakis Springs Hotel, carte postale : sepia, Saint-François-du-Lac (Québec) in BAnQ numérique.

The hotel with its four-floors tower, circa 1905: Pinsonneault. Abenakis Spring Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec, carte postale : sépia, Saint-François-du-Lac, vers 1905, in BAnQ numérique.

The hotel dining room: Inconnu. Dining room, Abenakis Springs Hotel, Prov. of Que.,  carte postale: coul. Publiée par The Abenakis Springs Hotel Co., in BAnQ numérique.

Water spring kiosks: Puits Abenakis Springs, collection de la société historique de la région de Pierreville, A-001-10, dans Bases de données en histoire régionale, Centre-du-Québec.

The two renovated kiosks: INCONNU. The Abenakis mineral Springs, Carte postale: sépia, Saint-François-du-Lac, dans BAnQ numérique.

The bottling plant: MORVAN MAKER (MAHER), Florentine. Florentine raconte…, Laffont Canada Ltée, 1980, page 13.

The Joseph-Courchesne House: CULTURE ET COMMUNICATION QUÉBEC, Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Maison Joseph-Courchesne.