Shawinigan Falls in 1904

While it can meander peacefully for several kilometres, the waters of the Saint-Maurice River can also become very rough in more rugged terrain. In spring, flooding swells the river’s falls that creep through the rocks.

A legend originating from Mauricie says that before the arrival of the Europeans, the Devil came to vacation in America, here in Shawinigan. He rested here, very quietly in a bottomless cave hidden by an eddy, at the bottom of two majestic waterfalls. Legend has it that the corpse of the Jesuit Jacques Buteux, who was killed by the Iroquois, was thrown into this cursed cave. The place later took the name “Devil’s Hole.”