Franquelin is a municipality in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada, in the administrative region of Côte-Nord

Côte-Nord

Côte-Nord is the second largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec...

 in RCM Maincouagan. Its population is 350 people over 530 square kilometres. Franquelin was founded at the foot of Massifs rocks of the Laurentians where impressive cliffs plunge to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence

Gulf of Saint Lawrence

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean...

.

The name of the municipality was given in honour of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin was born at Saint-Michel de Villebernin, France in 1651. He died in France around 1712. He was a cartographer, a royal hydrographer, and a teacher of navigation. He was also the first official cartographer in Canada....

, the first official cartographer of New France

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

. He drew the map of the Saint Lawrence River

Saint Lawrence River

The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

 in 1685.

Franquelin came into existence in 1911 thanks to the forest industry. The lumber would be transported to the rivers by horses. From there, it was shipped to paper mills in Thorold, Ontario

Thorold, Ontario

Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara....

, and then to Baie-Comeau starting in 1937. The Ontario Paper Company, owned by Colonel Robert R. McCormick

Robert R. McCormick

Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick was a member of the McCormick family of Chicago who became owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper...

, which later became the Quebec North Shore Paper Co., needed paper to supply the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

 and the New York Daily News

New York Daily News

The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

, which were also owned by McCormick.

Demographics

Population trend:

• Population in 2006: 346 (2001 to 2006 population change: -8.5 %)
• Population in 2001: 378
• Population in 1996: 391
• Population in 1991: 367

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 155 (total dwellings: 366)

Mother tongue:

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