Saint-Alban, Quebec

 

The first settlers, coming from Saint-Ambroise-de-la-Jeune-Lorette, Deschambault, Grondines, and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Perade, began clearing the area around 1830. In 1851, a mill was built that led to the development of the village. In 1856, the parish was founded, followed by the post office in 1857, and the parish municipality in 1860. Its official full name was Saint-Alban-d'Alton, and named after Saint Alban, the first martyr in Britain in the third century. Alton refers to its location in the geographic township of Alton, formed in 1841, and named after a town in Hampshire, England.

On 27 April 1894, Canada's largest known landslide occurred in Saint-Alban. Displacing 185 million cubic metres (242 million cubic yards) of rock and dirt, it made a 40-metre (130 ft) deep mark that covered 4.6 million square metres (1,100 acres).

In January 1918, the village centre separated from the parish municipality and was incorporated as the Village Municipality of Saint-Alban. In 1991, the parish and village municipalities merged again to form the new Municipality of Saint-Alban.

Population trend:

• Population in 2011: 1225 (2006 to 2011 population change: 7.6%)
• Population in 2006: 1138
• Population in 2001: 1170
• Population in 1996: 1159
• Population in 1991: 1176

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 552 (total dwellings: 764)

Mother tongue:

• English as first language: 0%
• French as first language: 100%
• English and French as first language: 0%
• Other as first language: 0%

 

Saint-Alban landslide, 1894

• Rivière Blanche (Saint-Casimir), Chute à Bélanger, Saint-Alban
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  Bridge sign steel girder structure P-6048, rang de la Rivière Blanche
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  From P-6048, rang de la Rivière Blanche
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  From P-6048, rang de la Rivière Blanche

• Portneuf Regional Natural Park

• Mariages de St-Alban (comté Portneuf) 1856-1900 (in French), compiled by Benoit Pontbriand, agronomist, 1965, 63 pages.