Arvida, Quebec

Arvida [1] is a settlement of 12,000 people (2010)[2] in Quebec, Canada, that is part of the City of Saguenay. Its name is derived from the name of its founder, Arthur Vining Davis, president of the Alcoa aluminum company.[2]

Arvida was founded as an industrial city by Alcoa in 1927, when the first aluminum smelter was constructed. Located 240 km north of Quebec City, south of the Saguenay River between Chicoutimi and Jonquière, the town was planned from the first day and was developed as a company town, to have a population of about 14,000 inhabitants, four Catholic parishes, and many other denominations, parishes and schools. It was known as "the City Built in 135 Days" and described by The New York Times as a "model town for working families" on "a North Canada steppe".[2]

The smelter complex at Arvida was the largest aluminum plant in the world from 1943 to 1975 and they produced two-thirds of the aluminum used by the World War II Allied forces.

History

In 1912 James B. Duke purchased the rights to the power on the Saguenay River, and in 1925 the Isle Maligne power station near Lac St. Jean came on stream (then the world's largest). In 1926 more than 250 houses were completed and the first ingots were poured. In 1932 Chute-à-Caron power station near Kénogami came on stream. The Shipshaw power station, just below Chute-à-Caron, came on stream during World War II and the Saguenay Inn in Arvida was completed. In 1950 the Arvida Bridge, an arched aluminum bridge, was completed, spanning the old Saguenay gorge near the Shipshaw power house. During World War II, the smelter was expanded and a large hydroelectric complex was built on the Saguenay River at Shipshaw generating 1200000 hp of power, becoming the largest aluminum production centre in the Western world.[2] Because of its importance to the Allied war effort, the town was guarded by anti-aircraft batteries.[2] The smelter transforms imported bauxite to alumina, and then to aluminum, by electrolysis. This process, and the smelting plant thereto, employed up to 7,500 people in the 1950s and the 1960s. The plant was due to close in 2005, as it had been replaced by at least three plants constructed during the last ten years in the Saguenay area. Rio Tinto Alcan continues to operate a smelter and related plants in the Arvida area.[2]

Climate

Culture

Landmark of the city is the Église Ste-Thérèse-de-l'enfant-Jésus. In the city's north, there is the Théâtre Palace Arvida, a modern theater for about 500 people.

Notable people

• Artist Claire Beaulieu was born in Arvida.[6]
• Thomas J. Hudson, genome scientist, was born in Arvida in 1961.
• Professional heavyweight champion wrestler Stan Stasiak was born in Arvida.
• Steve Maltais, ice hockey coach for the Chicago Cougars and former professional player

Further reading

Campbell is a good history of the development of aluminum smelting in the Saguenay. Hartwick's more recent book reports on work between 1950 and 68 at Labs in Arvida to develop a new industrial smelting process, the so-called monochloride process.

In 2011, writer Samuel Archibald, raised in Arvida, published a collection of short stories, Arvida, that won several Francophone literary prizes. In 2015, the collection was translated into English by Donald Winkler (Biblioasis Books) and was short-listed for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

• Duncan C. Campbell, Global Mission: The Story of Alcan. Volume 1: to 1950. Ontario Publishing Company Limited, 1985.
• John M. Hartwick, Out of Arvida. Kingston, Ontario: Citoxique Press, 2007.

External links

• "Giant of the North" Popular Mechanics, December 1943, article on the crash program to create the Shipshaw hydroelectric project
• "Arvida", Site Officiel de la ville