The hotel cantons de l’est are a historical administrative district in southeast Quebec, Canada. It stretches from Granby to Drummondville, which is located between the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border. Since 1987, most of the city has become part of the Estrie administrative district, and the word Eastern Townships has been common in tourist literature. The name comes from the fact that in Ontario, western townships were present.
For an account, the Eastern Townships has inns, B&BS, cottages, and hotels. The Au Diable Vert resort in Glen Sutton Valley is a 320-acre retreat with mountain condos, cabins, prospector tents, and treehouses. The old-style country inn Aux Jardins Champêtres in Magog serves meats and produce from its farm.
The history of cantons de l’est
The Abenaki populated the region before European colonization, as toponyms such as the Massawippi River and Lake Memphremagog. Until 1791, this region was governed by New France’s seigneurial regime. The area was resurveyed under English rule in 1791. It was subdivided into districts, which were subdivided further into townships.
Europeans arrived in three waves: first from New England, with some loyalists, then from the British Isles, and eventually from the nearby areas, with French-Canadians.
The Eastern Townships were a Quebec administrative district from 1967 to 1981. Estrie was renamed by the Commission de toponymie du Québec in 1981.
The district lost some ground in 1987 when the federal county municipalities were reorganized:
- Arthabaska, Drummond, and portions of Wolfe and Mégantic counties were relocated to Centre-du-Québec.
- Mégantic’s other half was relocated to Chaudière-Appalaches.
- Shefford and Missisquoi relocated to the province of Montérégie.
While counties were dissolved, some counties, such as Brome, Arthabaska, Compton, Missisquoi, Frontenac, and Shefford, continue to exist as rural county municipalities. Cleveland, Lingwick, Hatley Marston, Hampden, Orford, Melbourne, Memphrémagog, Potton, Sainte-Edwidge-de-Clifton, Saint-Camille, Stanstead, Stratford, Westbury, and Valcourt are among the towns that have survived as municipalities.
The area includes parallel ranges of hills, the Sutton Mountains, the Megantic Range, and the Stoke Mountains. A few streams and numerous waterways empty into St. Lawrence Bay.
The hotel cantons de l’est diverse economy involves asbestos mining, which used to supply about 80% of the world’s total but is now dwindling due to increasing awareness of asbestos’s health risks. Dairy breeding, sheep raising, and fruit production are all examples of agriculture. Manufacturing is also important in the area, particularly in paper, textiles, machinery, and furniture.
