Saint-Maurice, Rivière

River in southern Québec; length 525 km/325 mi. It rises above the Réservoir Gouin,and flows southeast across the Canadian Shield to La Tuque, then turns south toward the St Lawrence Valley, where it joins the St Lawrence River at Trois Rivières. The Rivière Saint-Maurice is heavily industrialized.

The lower reaches of the Rivière Saint-Maurice pass through Grand-Mère and Shawinigan, where major waterfalls have provided energy for industry since the 19th century. Settled around Trois-Rivières in the 1630s, the lower Saint-Maurice was one of the earliest centres of ‘New France’. In the 1730s, the Forges Saint-Maurice, within modern Trois-Rivières, became the site of Canada's first heavy industry – ironworking that continued into the 1880s. Factories making pulp and aluminium, hydroelectric power stations, and chemical plants later opened on the river. Its valley, especially the area below La Tuque, is known as La Mauricie; the Parc National de la Mauricie (area 544 sq km/210 sq mi), above Grand-Mère, preserves former forest hunting grounds.