Lake Matapedia

Lake Matapedia is a body of water in the Matapedia Valley, located in the unorganized territory of Lac-Matapédia, in Sayabec, in Val-Brillant, in La Matapédia Regional County Municipality, in administrative region of Bas-Saint-Laurent, in Quebec, Canada, and the source of the Matapedia River. The town of Amqui lies at the southeast corner of the lake. With an area of 38 square kilometres (15 sq mi), it extends over a length of 19 kilometres (12 mi) and a maximum width of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) between Sayabec and Amqui in the Matapedia Valley. Matapedia Lake is located in the center of the Matapedia Valley and formed by the Appalachian Mountains mountain range in the Notre Dame Mountains section. Lake Matapedia is located about thirty kilometers south of Matane in the former Seignory of Lac-Matapédia granted in 1694 to Charles-Nicolas-Joseph Damours of Louvières. Fed by several watercourses including the Sayabec River at the mouth of which the municipality of Sayabec is located, it discharges into the Baie des Chaleurs by the rivers Matapédia and Restigouche. Lake Matapedia is nicknamed the “Jewel of the Valley”. The riparian municipalities of Lac Matapédia are Sayabec, Val-Brillant and Amqui as well as the unorganized territory of Lac-Matapédia. The spelling of this lake takes several forms depending on the geographers and the times. This body of water is first identified in 1807 on Carey's map in the graphic form of L. Matapediuch.