Thursday, February 18, 2010

St. Louis Du Ha! Ha!




Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! is a parish in the regional county municipality of Témiscouata, Quebec, near the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. It is located southeast of Rivière-du-Loup and west of Cabano along the Trans-Canada Highway(Route 185), about halfway to Edmundston in New Brunswick.
The population of Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! is 1,471. Its economy is mainly agricultural. Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!'s motto is Solidaire dans le labeur, French for Solidarity in work.

A Catholic mission was started here in 1860, and the town was named in 1874. The name has nothing to do with laughter, but rather from an old French word for unexpected barrier or dead end. The "dead end" refers to Lac Temiscouata, 8 km to the east, where early canoe travellers were forced to begin an 80 km overland portage to Notre Dame de Portage on the St Lawrence.

The town is small and close knit, with a few small businesses and not much to speak of in tourism, but the quirky name has kept it on the map. St. Louis du Ha! Ha! Is the only place in North America whose name includes two exclamation points.

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