Amqui

Amqui (/ɒmkwiː/) is a town in eastern Quebec, Canada, at the base of the Gaspé peninsula in Bas-Saint-Laurent. Located at the confluence of the Humqui and Matapédia Rivers, it is the seat of La Matapédia Regional County Municipality. The main access road is Quebec Route 132.

Etymology

The Mi'kmaq word amqui, also written humqui, unkoui and ankwi, means "the place to have fun" or "place of amusement and pleasure." One source postulates that its name comes from the swirling water at the junction of the Humqui and Matapédia rivers. However, the most plausible explanation appears to be more pragmatic: Amqui was formerly a place where Amerindians gathered for pow wows.

History

Originally Mi'kmaq territory, the area was granted as a seignory by Louis de Buade de Frontenac to Charles-Nicolas-Joseph D’Amours in 1694. D'Amours died in 1728 and none of his descendants claimed the rights to the seignory. So it remained a remote and undeveloped land until the 19th century. In 1830 construction began on the Kempt Road, a strategic military road between Quebec and the Maritimes, completed in 1833, that opened the area to colonization. But it was the construction of the Intercolonial Railway in the 1870s that brought real development.

Amqui railway station

Amqui railway station is located on Boulevard Saint-Benoît Boulevard Ouest in the town of Amqui, Quebec, Canada. The station is a heated and semi-staffed shelter equipped with washrooms and is wheelchair-accessible. Amqui is served by Via Rail's Ocean, and Montreal – Gaspé train. Both trains share the same rail line between Montreal and Matapédia.

The station is representative of the boom in rail use in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the associated expansion of the railways in general, and the Intercolonial Railway of Canada (IRC) in particular. Amqui depended on the railway to transport their agricultural products and finished parts made of wood. Subsequently, Amqui became an important stop on the train's route from Montréal to Halifax, and from Montréal to Gaspé.

The design of the station Amqui is unusual for a station of the IRC. It is distinguished by its two-stage design, incorporating the housing of the station master and his family.

The Canadian National Railway station is a designated Heritage Railway Station.