main buildings What was ultimately to become the centre of the borough of Chicoutimi was first settled by French colonists in 1676 as a
trading post in the
fur trade. At that time, the Saguenay and the Chicoutimi rivers had been used as waterways by the
Montagnais tribes for centuries. The name
Chicoutimi derives from the . After the British seized Lower Canada, the Chicoutimi trading post continued to operate only until 1782, as the fur trade had moved further west of the Great Lakes. The city of Chicoutimi was officially incorporated in 1845 as a municipality by Peter McLeod, a
Métis timber contractor who built a sawmill there in 1842. The town was designated in 1855 as the seat of Chicoutimi County and the seat of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicoutimi in 1878. The arrival of the
Canadian National Railway in 1893 stimulated the growth of Chicoutimi's
pulp and paper industries, particularly mechanical pulp production. The railway also built
Chicoutimi station, which served the city until 1988. The Chicoutimi Pulp Co. was founded in 1896 backed by
French-Canadian investors. The Chicoutimi Pulp Mill became the biggest producer of mechanical pulp in Canada by 1910. Since the
Great Depression, the city has become an administrative and commercial centre. New centres of education and culture were established: in 1967, the
Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay; and in 1969, the
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. The city also played host to the Quebec Summer Games in 1972. In the municipal amalgamations of 1976, Chicoutimi annexed the neighbouring towns of Chicoutimi-Nord and Rivière-du-Moulin. In a much larger round of
Municipal reorganization in Quebec in 2002, the cities of Chicoutimi,
Jonquière,
La Baie, Lac-Kénogami,
Laterrière, Shipshaw and part of
Tremblay merged to form the new city of
Saguenay. Chicoutimi became a borough of Saguenay. During the summer of 1996, a record rainfall in the region caused
major flooding in the downtown, as well as outlying areas. Dams were overrun, many bridges were destroyed throughout the region. The total cost of the disaster was recorded as 1.5 billion Canadian dollars. The flood also killed seven people. Chicoutimi is home to a large UPS facility serving the greater Quebec area. Chicoutimi's
sister city is
Camrose,
Alberta. ==Geography and cityscape==