Contract for the Sale of the Lower Section of the Metis River by the Seigneurie Fief Pachot Estates to the Lower St. Lawrence Company

Elsie Reford was a large landowner in the region. Her land included Estevan Lodge and the gardens that she developed. But it also included both banks of the Metis River from the Pont Bergeron Bridge upriver to Price.

In 1942, she sold the bottom stretch of the Metis River to the St. Lawrence Power Company. She felt pressured to sell the river and the fishing rights under the pretext of the increased needs for energy production to feed the war effort during World War II. Her doubts were well-founded, as the second dam on the river was not built until 1947, after the war was over. The Mitis II Dam was built just 1 km upstream from the rivermouth. It left little room for the salmon to spawn. The population declined significantly in the years that followed. But the restoration efforts begun in the 1960s contributed the regeneration of the population that has grown significantly in the intervening decades.