Municipality of Franklin

Introduction and Background

The municipality of Franklin is officially recognised in 1857. Although, it is not until 1973 that it gets its actual status following the fusion of Franklin canton and Saint-Antoine-Abbé-Partie-Nord-Est.

Named after Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), English explorer who went to the Mackenzie River's mouth in the North-West Territories, the municipality includes the villages of Saint-Antoine-Abbé and Franklin Centre and the localities of Bridgetown and Dorea. It follows the US-Canada borders and its customs station can be reached using Route 209.

Franklin's landscape is renowned for the abundance and beauty of its orchards and maple sugar groves not to mention the low walls made of rocks skirting Route 202. Designated as a rural centre, Franklin is host to the Ecological Reserve of Pin-Rigide (French only) the biggest known settlement of Pin-Rigide in Quebec and the Forest of Franklin, home to the stag of Virginia.

The ground, which doesn't go more than 100 meters high in the north, is drained by the Brandy brook and rises gradually up to 320 meters in the south where the East Outardes river and Michel brook irrigates it.

The recreation centre, the two primary schools, the public housing, the Lac des Pins camping site and its beach, the many orchards, the micro-brewery, a rich inheritance and many churches more than a hundred years old contribute to the charm of this picturesque canton.

*Source, Population and Surface: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population.