Ghost Town - Val Jalbert

[Manfred M]

Val Jalbert consisted of the pulp mill and houses for the workers which were located in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada at the Ouiatchouan Falls near the current town of Chambord.

The mill and associated town were built in 1901 and it became a ghost town when the mill closed in 1927. The reason for the closure was that the mill produced mechanically processed pulp, which had been in demand in Europe and the US for this material was replaced by chemically processed pulp, something the mill could not produce.

The "town" was a typical "company town" built to attract and keep skilled workers. The houses had running water, indoor plumbing and electricity, luxuries that were unheard of in other places.

The day we were there, it rained hard all day, so shooting and then post-processing to get some texture in the sky was challenging.


1. The Pulp Mill and the Ouiatchouan Falls





2. The Convent and school - four nuns and a Mother Superior lived, worked and taught the local children





3. Street with worker's houses.





4. Mill Worker's House

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured and processed, you've maintained a rural, historic appearance to the scenes.

[FootLoose]

Nice set, Manfred. They seem to be fairly substantial dwellings, particularly the last one. Not what I would have expected as company housing.

[Manfred M]

Nice set, Manfred. They seem to be fairly substantial dwellings, particularly the last one. Not what I would have expected as company housing.

If you look carefully, the last one is actually a semi-detached house with two families living in separate areas of one building. There are two front doors leading into the building.

My understanding is that this being a fairly remote area, even today, one of the company's main issues was keeping the labour force from leaving for other towns in the area. Much like the "perks" employers of today have to offer when the job market is tight.

We chatted with the nun (she was a real nun, not just a costumed interpreter) about the convent school, we were told that the convent was considered a plum assignment because of the indoor water, indoor toilets, central heat and electric lights. There were 9 different mother superiors over the ~ 25 years that the convent was active.

[John 2]

Nice series Manfred. The town looks well kept non the less. Is it now maintained as a museum?

[Manfred M]

Nice series Manfred. The town looks well kept non the less. Is it now maintained as a museum?

The village was abandoned around 1930 and was out of people's minds until the 1960s. By the mid 1980s there was talk of preserving the village and about 10 years later the effort started. We visited it in around 1998 much of the site was not accessible, especially the mill itself and I don't remember any of the buildings being open.

Things were much more civilized 20 year later and the site has been developed as an open air museum complete with interpreters in period costume. I suspect things would have been even more different had we visited about a week earlier, as with school starting in Quebec during the last week of August, everything was being run in shoulder season mode.

The one thing that was nice that we did not have 20 years ago was a shuttle bus to take visitors up from the parking lot area to the mill building. The other change is that the dam above the town has been fixed and a small, modern hydro electric generating station is operating there. It is connected to the electrical grid.

[Tom Barry]

A lovely series, Manfred. I think black-and-white is an appropriate choice for the subject and the renderings are very well done.