In 2017, the Lac-à-Jim Resort Center celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. At the request of the board of directors, I accepted the challenge of digging through the archives to recount the main events. It is with pleasure that I offer you here a summary of this work. I can say that I was a privileged witness to the evolution of this site because, with only three exceptions, all the photos accompanying the text are mine.

Starting in 1964, the municipality rented land along the shores of Lac-à-Jim to set up a municipal beach and a few picnic tables so families could enjoy outings together.

It was at the suggestion of Mr. Albert Laurendeau that the municipal council decided to build a summer camp on this site in 1967.

The founder of the center, Mr. Albert Laurendeau, surrounded by his “cookers” on April 28, 1990 (Jean-Marc Paradis, Jean-Louis Gilbert, Denis Tremblay, Christian Gaumond, and his daughter Marjolaine Laurendeau)

Going into the details of the administration of the complex by the Élan Sports Club would alone represent a task of hundreds of pages. Given the scale of the task, the club even created an ad hoc committee for the management of the building. However, it must be acknowledged that the administrators carried out this responsibility brilliantly throughout their entire administration.

In addition to maintaining the facilities, they improved them right up until the end of their lease in 1988—not to mention the numerous activities organized on the site both in summer and winter.

As mentioned, managing this complex is no easy task. When the council took over its management at the request of the Élan Club in 1988, a committee was formed to oversee the administration of the center.

Just like during previous administrations, many volunteers dedicated thousands of hours of work and commitment.

The Canada-Quebec Infrastructure Program enabled major investments in 1995.

The central pavilion was given the look we know today, and a new two-unit lodging was built and named the Albert-Laurendeau Pavilion.

A problem consistently raised by all the managers and administrators at the time was the lack of accommodation capacity. In 1998, the municipality seized the opportunity offered by Donohue, who donated three dormitories located at mileage 54 on the Chibougamau road.

The administrators thought they were getting a good deal, unaware that campground standards were very different from those of forestry camps. The dormitories couldn’t be used without being almost entirely rebuilt! They therefore served as storage units.

In 1999, the municipality, upon the recommendation of the center’s administrators, decided to put the site up for sale.

The first offer from the company Katassos could not be completed due to lack of financing.

It was finally in the year 2000, following a second call for tenders, that the center was sold to a numbered company represented by Mr. Gérard Pagé, Mr. Réjean Tremblay, and Mr. Luc Girard. The private company operated the site until 2010, with its ups and downs.

In 2010, after four successive inaugurations of the Tourist Complex, the mayor of the municipality who succeeded Albert Laurendeau, Denis Tremblay, supported by his wife Édith Tremblay and numerous volunteers, decided to revive the enterprise under the cooperative system. After hundreds of hours of volunteer work cleaning and painting the center, they succeeded in rallying a group of influential and competent individuals to restart activities. It was on May 4, 2011, that the Lac-à-Jim Solidarity Cooperative was born.

After a few months of operation, Mr. Hébert had to hand over to Mr. Daniel Beaulieu for the continuation of operations.

During the year 2013, two new chalets were built and the renovation of an existing chalet allowed us to expand our service offering: the chalets “Le Trappeur,” “Le Draveur,” and “Le Pêcheur,” with financial support from Canada Economic Development.

With the same Ministry, the Municipality was able to renew the floating docks in 2014.

Great personalities have visited here:

Dédé Fortin, who was named honorary ambassador of the municipality, the great Messmer came to put us to sleep, and Gaston Lepage surprised everyone by stepping out of his helicopter during a bush pilots’ gathering.

Other artists also performed here, including Luc Boulianne, Isabelle Coulombe, and Guy Racine. But above all, it was the presence of all of you, the center’s clients, who played the role of ambassadors by spreading the center’s reputation abroad. Wonderful activities returned year after year: Burbot fishing, the summer fishing tournament, the Olymplages, the beach party, the family celebration, the pontoon parade, the nature summer camp of the Federation of Hunting and Fishing Clubs, the bush pilots’ gathering, Christmas in July for campers, the swimming marathon which continues to grow in scale, and many others…

Over the years, the center has also been known by different names: summer camp, pastoral chalet, Lac à Jim outdoor base, Lac à Jim outdoor center, Lac à Jim tourist center, Lac à Jim tourist inn, and finally, Lac-à-Jim Resort Center. And to think that some people still talk about the pastoral chalet!

At the end of my research, with some perspective, three things seem to characterize the history of the center:

1. The founder, Mr. Albert Laurendeau, was a visionary.
2. The richness of the center’s history: Hundreds of pages will need to be written to do justice to all the work accomplished up to now. Not to mention the dedication of hundreds and hundreds of volunteers over the years who have maintained and improved the site as we know it today. It is not for lack of vision or effort that these people were unable to fully realize their dreams. Profitability is hard to achieve when one is far from major population centers and established tourist circuits. We have highlighted the vision of Mr. Albert Laurendeau, who had the opportunity to continue the work he began when he became mayor of the municipality, but we must also recognize the efforts of Mr. Denis Tremblay, who succeeded him as mayor and faced many challenges in reviving the complex.
3. Community support has always been extraordinary. In cities, when a business closes for some time, it takes forever to rebuild traffic. Here, people come back right away. The solidarity cooperative is proof of that. Of course, many constraints make it difficult to fulfill every dream, but at the core, the will is clearly there.

Since 2012, the Lac-à-Jim swimming marathon has continued to grow in scale.

If the site now enjoys widespread recognition, it is not due to large paid advertising campaigns, but rather thanks to the glowing reviews shared by users across the country and even beyond its borders.

“Lac à Jim, Resort Center” has a beautiful history, but above all, it benefits from a magnificent setting that it intends to continue enhancing through exciting projects and activities.

Today, operated as a solidarity cooperative with over 90 members, “Lac à Jim, Resort Center” continues to warmly welcome both the local population and tourists, all year round.

The staff, supported by several volunteers, is constantly seeking ideas and initiatives to better meet the needs of its clientele.

Thanks to Mr. Jean-Marc Paradis for providing the base text used to create this page. Thanks to Mr. Léon-Paul Darveau for his contribution to the text.