Lac-à-Jim is 11.2 kilometers long. It is a narrow and deep lake. At its widest point, the shores are only 0.6 km apart, but it contains trenches over 40 meters deep.
Many fish species inhabit the lake: landlocked salmon, walleye, pike, lake trout, burbot, smelt, whitefish, and several others.
The lake owes its name to an Indigenous man who settled there in the 18th century: Jim Raphaël. When a missionary priest discovered the camp, he baptized the children, including Jacques (nicknamed Ti-Biche), and celebrated a mass.
Since that day, from generation to generation, the Raphaël family has ensured that a wooden cross overlooks Ti-Biche Point in memory of this event.
Lac-à-Jim long played a major role in the regional forestry industry. Timber from logging camps farther north was floated down to the southern part of the lake, where various sawmills were established over time: Albert Darveau, Fernand Laliberté, Marcel Tremblay, Omer Perreault, and Auger Lumber. From 1949 to 1963, the Price Brothers company operated a timber slide. This 14-kilometer-long chute transported pulpwood (4-foot logs) from Lac-à-Jim to the Ashuapmushuan River. The timber was then floated downstream to Alma.
On September 25, 1929, an American journalist named Burt McConnel was dropped off in the territories north of Lac à Jim to undertake a survival experience in the forest wearing nothing but his underwear. He was honoring a bet he had made to lose weight under conditions of extreme deprivation.
