Lac-à-la-Tortue, Quebec

Lac-à-la-Tortue was a small town in the administrative region of Mauricie, in the province of Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1895, the town consisted of about 2500 inhabitants. Since January 1, 2002, Lac-à-la-Tortue has become one of the seven sectors of the new merged Shawinigan city. The Lac-à-la-Tortue area is located east of the Saint-Maurice River near the former town of Grand-Mère, east of the former city of Saint-Georges, south of Hérouxville and west of Saint-Narcisse.Lac-à-la-Tortue sector takes its toponymic origin of the lake of the same name. Despite its proximity to the Saint-Maurice River (only three km at the closest), the lake is part of the Batiscanie watershed. The discharge of the lake flows north into the Rivière La Tortue (Turtle River), who joined the Rivière des Envies (Cravings River) in Saint-Stanislas. This lake is the oldest civil seaplane base in Canada and since the 20th century has been a well known resort.GeographyEcological reserveLac-à-la-Tortue sector has the largest peat lowlands of the St. Lawrence basin. This ecological reserve with a total area of 565.69 hectares is located approximately six kilometres south of Grand-Mère. This protected area is part of two municipal areas of Shawinigan: Lac-à-la-Tortue and Shawinigan-Sud. The ecological reserve protects a bog characteristic of the region lowlands of the St. Lawrence, west style.