,
lac Chibougamau, 1892. The area has long been part of the
Cree territory. It was in the early 17th century that French explorers and traders, including
Charles Albanel in 1671, came to the
Chibougamau Lake area. However, no permanent European settlements were established at that time. Only in the late 19th century would the area attract the interest of mining
prospectors. When gold was discovered in 1903, there were periods of intense exploration. The difficulty of access caused no lasting development to take place at the time. In 1918, the
Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established a storage depot on Chibougamau Lake to supply the
Mistassinni trading post. Circa 1927, a fur trading post was added to the depot and it became an outpost of Mistassinni. Circa 1931, Chibougamau became a full post, but closed in 1941. In 1949, copper extraction began, with the opening of a multi-metallic mine in the area, and a permanent community was established in 1952. Chibougamau started out as a
company town but soon afterward, in 1954, it was incorporated as a municipality. That same year, the HBC reopened their post, which was converted to a store in 1956. Many mines have exploited the area since. While still thought of as a mining town, Chibougamau is now also the centre of a large
logging and
sawmill industry. From 1962 to 1988, the
Royal Canadian Air Force operated
CFS Chibougamau, a radar station in Chibougamau that was part of the
Pinetree Line. The complex has now been transformed into a golf complex and an office for a mining company. In 1984, the HBC store (operating as a Northern Store since 1964) permanently closed. From December 2001 to 2012, the mayor of Chibougamau also sat on the municipal council of
Municipality of Baie-James. The city is home to an annual "
Folies frettes" festival ("Cold Follies") and a
snowmobile rally. ==Geography==