Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

The name of the Parc de la Rivière-Missisquoi-Nord was formalized August 1, 2005.  This park is comprised of three distinct sectors: Secteur André-Gagnon, in which are found a tennis court, ball field, soccer field, a pump track for dirt bikes, our Tourist bureau, a parking and, in winter, a skating rink.  Secteur Nautique is the sector of the River in Mansonville on which kayaking and canoeing may be enjoyed.  Access to the river is via a path located near the Richelieu store.  It is well marked.  This is a quiet broad portion of the Missisquoi where a pleasant walking path winds along the western riverbank.  The third sector is the Secteur du Moulin.  Here, the River is both descending and narrowing, thus increasing water flow, the perfect conditions required for the mills once operated in this sector.  It was here that in 1803, Lewis and Chandler built the first mill in what was to become Mansonville.  Not long after Robert Manson, a newcomer to town, purchased that mill, renovated it and built a second nearby.  William Boright, grandson of Robert Manson, operated one of these mills until 1927, when “part of the old mill went out in the flood (...).  It was later sold to Mansonville Utilities and taken down.”   Mansonville Utilities Company was formed after 1903, when Charles Brouillette installed a modest hydroelectric power plant in the Missisquoi, on a small spit of land.  It supplied electricity to a portion of Mansonville, famously used for the first time on Christmas Eve.  Secteur du Moulin is best viewed from the foot of Mill Street, where Potton's last mill, the Co-op, was once located.  According to Bouchette's British Dominions in North America, Volume III, 1831, Potton had 3 corn mills (grist mills), 1 carding, 1 fulling and 4 sawmills.