Fort-Coulonge, Quebec, is a charming village nestled in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in western Quebec, Canada. Located at the mouth of the Coulonge River, it serves as the francophone centre of the otherwise largely anglophone Pontiac MRC. According to the Canada 2006 Census, 79.6% of the population lists French as their mother tongue. Fort-Coulonge is also home to the Félix-Gabriel-Marchand Bridge, Quebec's longest covered bridge, situated in neighbouring Mansfield-et-Pontefract.
The history of Fort-Coulonge, Quebec, dates back to the late 17th century when the site was intermittently occupied by members of the d'Ailleboust family, who used "sieur de Coulonge" as a title. The Commission de toponymie du Québec mentions Nicholas d'Ailleboust de Manthet, who wintered at the location in 1694. However, other accounts suggest that the d'Ailleboust family founded the area as early as 1650. The site was abandoned after the fall of New France.
In 1784, the North West Company re-occupied the site and built a fort, named Fort Coulonge. The Hudson's Bay Company took over in 1821 and continued to supply the fort from Montreal. Until 1828, it served as the head trading post on the Ottawa River, engaging in farming and trading with the indigenous Ojibwe and Algonquins. As the area became more settled after 1830, it transformed into a general store. The post's 655-acre farm was sold in 1844, and the surviving store was sold to Thomas Taylor, its last clerk, in 1855.
The trading post eventually became the village of Fort-Coulonge, situated several kilometres downriver. The region's first sawmill, built by George Bryson Sr. in 1843, sparked permanent settlement and the formation of the village. The mission of Saint-Pierre-de-Fort-Coulonge was established in 1845, followed by the Presbyterian parish of St. Andrews in 1863. The post office opened in 1853, and by the mid-1860s, the town had a population of about 500.
The first wooden chapel was built in 1873, but it was destroyed by fire and replaced by a brick church in 1884. The Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway reached Fort-Coulonge in 1886. The village became a municipality in 1888 when it separated from the Township Municipality of Mansfield, with John Bryson, son of George Bryson, serving as the first mayor.
The lumber industry continued to drive the growth of Fort-Coulonge in the 1890s and early 20th century. The many logging camps in the Ottawa Valley created a big demand for accommodation in the town; by the 1890s, there were at least five hotels. The town's mills produced thousands of feet of cut lumber, as well as pulp wood. Passenger rail service to Fort-Coulonge ended in 1958, and cargo traffic ended in 1977.
According to the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fort-Coulonge had a population of 1,312 living in 574 of its 605 total private dwellings. This represented a change of -8.4% from its 2016 population of 1,433. With a land area of 2.96 km2 (1.14 sq mi), it had a population density of 443.2/km2 (1,148.0/sq mi) in 2021.
