Kiamika, Quebec

From then on, the Company's mission was to establish agricultural and industrial establishments on unestablished lands in the canton of Kiamika. For the first two years of its existence, it only granted lots to its members, most of whom were from Chambly County. But in 1885, faced with the low number of members applying for lot concessions, the Society expanded the program to non-members.

The same year, the Quebec government completed the construction of Chapleau Road which connects Nominingue to Kiamika. Colonization then exploded on the Lièvre River. Unfortunately for Kiamika, although established before, it is Rapide-de-l'Orignal, the future town of Mont-Laurier, which will mainly benefit from this colonization movement.

However, settlement continued in Kiamika and from the end of the 20th century the inhabitants of the village took steps to bring Kiamika into the modernity of the time. Requests are being made to the Archbishop of Ottawa, Mgr. Duhamel, so that a priest would be installed in the village and a church would be built there. Even if these requests began in 1888, it was not until 1898 that a first resident priest was installed there, Father Joseph-Aimé Lemonde, and another four years, i.e. 1902, for the church to be completed. Kiamika is then officially a parish.

The year of the arrival of priest Lemonde, 1898, also marked the year of the official foundation of the municipality of Kiamika. The same year as the construction of the church, 1902, a first school board was formed to manage the village school and the local schools. Entering the 21st century, the small town of Kiamika is now officially a village in its own right with its parish, municipal status and public institutions.

From its origins, the village's economy has been focused on the forestry industry. The first sawmill in the Haute-Lièvre region was opened near the village by Victor Dufort, in 1886, and the first years of development saw the birth of several other sawmills, jobber sites (subcontractors of forestry companies). and lumber shops. The economic crisis of 1929 put a brake on this rapid development and, worse, caused a decline in the forestry economy in the decades that followed.

As with many other villages in the Hautes-Laurentides, this collapse of the forestry industry is forcing the municipality to diversify its economy towards the tourism sector. Although developments in the sector were slow in the 1930s and 1940s, they accelerated from the 1950s, driven by the rise in popularity of cars and vacations. Several outfitters, established in the area in the first half of the 20th century, exploded in popularity. The inhabitants of Kiamika find employment there to maintain the chalets or serve as hunting and fishing guides for customers. Very quickly, the tourism industry became an economic hub for the locality.