Murdochville
| Murdochville | |||
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 Town view of the Canadian city of Murdochville |
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| Location in Quebec | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | Quebec | ||
| Administrative region : | Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine | ||
| MRC or equivalent : | La Cote-de-Gaspé | ||
| Coordinates : | 48 ° 58 ′ N , 65 ° 30 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 556 m | ||
| Area : | 61.37 km² | ||
| Residents : | 651 (as of 2016) | ||
| Population density : | 10.6 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern Time ( UTC − 5 ) | ||
| Municipality number: | 03025 | ||
| Postal code : | G0E 1W0 | ||
| Area code : | +1 418, 581 | ||
| Foundation : | July 15, 1953 | ||
| Mayor : | Délisca Ritchie Roussy | ||
| Website : | www.murdochville.com | ||
Murdochville is a Canadian city located in the southeast of the province of Québec .
geography
Murdochville is located in the northeast of the Gaspésie peninsula and is one of the few larger towns that is not on the coast but inland on this peninsula. The city is located about 40 kilometers south of the south bank of the St. Lawrence River , which in this area already merges into the St. Lawrence Gulf .
history
The city of Murdochville is a relatively young town, its founding shortly after the mid-20th century goes back to the discovery of copper ore deposits in this area. These deposits had already been discovered in 1921, but it was not until the 1940s that the mining company "Noranda Mines", founded in 1922, began exploratory drilling to determine the productivity of the deposit. After the result of these exploratory measures had confirmed the commercially viable mining of the copper ore, the construction of a mining infrastructure and the extraction of the ore began in 1950, although the first smelting of the ore did not take place until the end of 1951. At the same time, Noranda Mines applied for permission to found a town on the site of the mine in order to be able to accommodate the miners and their families. However, this application was initially rejected by the government of the province of Quebec, because the city charter of the planned new establishment contained the passage that the mayor and city councilors had to speak English, which was unacceptable in the largely French-speaking province. In July 1953 the city was constituted after all, named after the Toronto attorney "James Young Murdoch" (1890-1962). He was not only the founder and co-owner of the copper mine, but also the first president of Noranda Mines.
The mining of the copper ore formed the only livelihood of the city, so that any impairment of the mining operations had to be a threat to the economic life of the city. This was already evident in 1987, when part of the mine was destroyed by an underground fire and it was shut down for more than a year. The resumption of mining operations at the beginning of 1989 only gave the city a short respite, as the ore deposits were slowly running out. The final end of mining operations came in September 1999, after the copper price had also collapsed on the world markets. The only remaining business after that was ore smelting, but the city lost this too after the smelter ceased operations in April 2002. As a result of the associated loss of jobs, many city dwellers emigrated, with the result that the city's population fell dramatically: While it was around 3700 in the mid-1970s, in 2016 there were only around 650 people living in Murdochville. A referendum was even held to dissolve the city. Since then, however, attempts have been made to at least partially compensate for the economic losses caused by the cessation of mining through various substitution measures. This includes, among other things, the construction of wind turbines and the promotion of tourism.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ History of Murdochville (Franz. languages) , accessed on 31 March 2020