Nantes, Quebec
Nantes is a municipality in Le Granit Regional County Municipality in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada. It is situated between Stornoway and Lac-Mégantic, where the Canadian Pacific Railway used to cross. Its population in the Canada 2011 Census was 1,374.History
Nantes used to be called Spring Hill. In 1856, Scottish settlers established their camps. It was called in Gaelic Drum-A-Vack. Later, French-Canadian families took over the camps in 1905. A train station and a postal office were added to the community in 1879 and in 1898, two sawmills, two telegraph offices, and two general stores were added as well.
On July 6, 2013, a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway train engine caught fire and was extinguished by the Nantes Fire Department. In the process of extinguishing the fire, fire department turned off the engine. Later MMA officials left the train unmanned and parked on the line. As the engine had been turned off, the brake system began to lose pressure, eventually dropping to the point the brakes could no longer hold the train in place. The train rolled away from Nantes, towards Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and derailed there, causing an explosion that destroyed around half of the downtown area and killed forty-two people.
Nantes has the distinction of having the last electro-mechanical telephone exchange in the public network of North America, finally converting to digital in 2002.Twin town
