VIE EN MONTAGNE PAR/BY MOUNTAIN LIFE - Hiver | Winter 2020

49 Where everyone saw a city that was ready to bury, Guillaume Molaison imagined a paradise for skiing and snowboarding. Today, Murdochville is a staple for powder lovers in eastern North America. Murdochville Born Again words :: Maxime Bilodeau N o one expected much of a future for Murdochville at the start of this millennium—not even the Murdochvillians. On August 25, 2002, after weeks of turmoil, the approximately 1,000 residents of this mining town located in the centre of the Gaspé Peninsula voted 65% in favour of its closure. This referendumwas to be the outcome of a sad saga; three years earlier, the Noranda copper mine shut down, followed in the spring of 2002 by the city’s other main employer, the Mines Gaspé smelter. However, the Government of Quebec does not see it that way and decided to keep the town alive. In the years that followed, there was an exodus: Murdochville became a ghost town. In the 1970s, at the height of its prosperity, as many as 5,000 people lived there.