The Last of the Wild Rivers

The Past, Present, and Future of the Rivière du Moine Watershed

For four hundred years, the journals of all the great explorers of Canada have mentioned the Deux Joachims portage and the wild Rivière du Moine as they made their way west to discover riches, routes, or souls to save. The Du Moine is the last of the ten major Quebec tributaries of the Ottawa River to resist the development threats of hydro, mining, and modern colonization. Recent conservation efforts to preserve this last of the wild rivers as an aquatic reserve have met with mixed reviews by all those who would be affected, including the Algonquins of Wolf Lake--whose ancestors, the Du Moine River band, originally occupied the watershed.

Wally Schaber has been observing and participating in defining the modern history of the Du Moine River watershed for nearly half a century. Within the covers of this book, Schaber has gathered a
detailed history of the Du Moine watershed, often told through the lives of characters who lived that history and continue to define it. It’s a river guide for those who want to think about and act upon
the past, present, and future of this great wilderness river.