>I went to Lac Albanel, beyond Chibougamau, a few years ago. There were snow flurries in late May.

My mother told me not long ago she remembers seeing snow in mid-June. At that time, we lived further North, near LG3 (James Bay). But that is rare. We usually go swimming starting in May, but this year it's still too cold.

>There seems to be a concentration of towns in your area of Western Quebec. Why is that? The parts of the Canadian Shield I have seen look so rough and un-farmable that few people live there. Is your area less rocky?

Mining. Val d'Or stands for "Golden Valley" in French.

val = vallée = valley
d' = de = of
or = gold
"valley of gold"

The town of Rouyn-Noranda has a big copper mine (Noranda Mines). Val d'Or has gold and zinc mines.

There is also forest - there is a lot of wood here, although not big trees. But it does provide enough wood to warrant building those industries here.

There are some farms, but they are rather rare. The area is rocky.

Even though the area is relatively remote from big cities like Montreal and Toronto, we're quite up-to-date technologically speaking - most people from Montreal think we're still living in the '50s!