Lac Beauchamp Park, Municipal park in Gatineau, Canada.
Lac Beauchamp Park is a public space built around a large lake with multiple kilometers of paths through forest and open areas. It offers opportunities for swimming, fishing, walking, and winter sports like cross-country skiing.
Lac Beauchamp was known as lac de la Mine in the 1930s and 1940s, when a silica mine operated on the site. Canada Glass and Sand Ltd. worked it from 1927 to 1930, then Ottawa Silica and Sandstone Ltd. until 1941, quarrying quartz sandstone at the lake's south end and hauling ore by horse-drawn rail carts to a crushing plant where the reception pavilion now stands. The sand shipped to Montreal made glass, and the tailings piled below the plant form today's beach. Mining ended after the Second World War, and the lake served as a city dump until the 1970s.
The lake was once called lac de la Mine, after the silica mine that operated at the park site. Since 2001 the beach has hosted Merveilles de sables de Gatineau, an annual sand sculpture competition. Ornithologists, entomologists and garden lovers use the park chalet and the surrounding nature preserve for their activities.
Visitors can rent boats, canoes, skis, and snowshoes at the building near the free parking at the main entrance. The best visit times are May through September for water activities and December through March for winter sports.
The beach where visitors swim is made of waste rock dumped at the foot of the old crushing plant; the quartz sand shipped to Montreal for glass-making came from quarries at the lake's south end, hauled by horse-drawn rail carts.
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