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• Featured in Artists Universe on 2012-06-02
• Featured in AMERICAS~RURAL, URBAN, WILD AND FREE on 2012-02-01

The Chutes de Plaisance, or Plaisance Falls, are located about five kilometres north of the village of Plaisance, along Route 148. An exceptional natural and historic site, for over a century, the falls were the site of a thriving mill town known as North Nation Mills.

NORTH NATION MILLS
In its heyday in the late 1800s, North Nation Mills boasted over 300 residents. Most of them worked at the large sawmill that was powered by the raging torrent of the Plaisance Falls. The village that grew up around the mill had a general store (owned by the mill), churches, a schoolhouse, a cheese factory — all kinds of activity, in fact. But all of that is gone now; and the site is virtually a ghost town.

Established at the very beginning of the 19th century, the mills (and falls) changed hands several times over the next century. Joseph Papineau (the father of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the politician) was the first person to develop the site. Following him, it passed to a series of different owners, until it was purchased by the W. C. Edwards Company. In the 1920s, the site was acquired by the Gatineau Power Company so that that company could build a hydro-electric plant. It was at this time that most of the buildings in the village were demolished or relocated. Tests were conducted by the company on the rock around the falls, and surprisingly, the site was deemed inappropriate for the installation of a power plant. The project was abandoned. Author: Matthew Farfan

Location: Plaisance Falls, Plaisance, Qc. Canada
Date: 2012-01-28
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ISO: 1600
Shutter Priority: 1/800 sec.
Aperture priority: F/7,1
Metering Mode: Spot
Copyright: Yannik Hay
Lens: Tamron 28-300mm@300mm
Lightroom 3,3 Photoshop CS5 64 bits for Mac – Camera Raw 6,6