Québec National Parks, one of the three magnificent Sépaq Networks

Français

1-800-665-6527

	Conservation Mission

History

Artifacts found in the Oka area, most dating from 2,200 to 2,500 B.C., indicate that aboriginal peoples have frequented the area for thousands of years.

In 1717, the governor of New France ceded the Lac des Deux-Montagnes Seigniory to the Saint-Sulpician Seminary of Montréal. A few years later, Sulpician missionaries set up a mission in Oka with the aim of evangelizing the Iroquois Mohawk, Huron, Algonquin, and Nipissing, who were the main aboriginal nations in the area at the time.

The Oka Calvary, featuring four oratories and three chapels, is a unique historical infrastructure in North America. The priests of Saint-Sulpice had it erected between 1740 and 1742, about twenty years after a mission had been established along the lake. Solidly built, it is still open for visits today.

In 1881, Trappist monks used part of the area to create a model farm devoted to agriculture and the education of aboriginal peoples and colonists. In 1982, the Calvary hill and some adjacent orchards were designated a historic site. Reproductions of multicoloured bas-reliefs, the works of an area sculptor, were installed in the Calvaire oratories and chapels. The original works were removed from the Calvaire in 1970 to be exhibited at the Kateri Tekakwhita chapel in Oka's Eglise de l'Annonciation.

In 1962, the Québec government purchased a small, 1.6 sq. km. parcel of land from the Sulpicians to create a fishing and hunting reserve. In the early 1970s, the Ministère du Tourisme, de la Chasse et de la Pêche purchased additional land, including the Colline du Calvaire, increasing the size of the park to 23.7 sq. km. In 1990, the park was classified as a recreation park with the dual role of protecting the environment and fostering outdoor recreation.