A mill has stood, in some form, at 5 rue Egan in Quyon for nearly 180 years.

Lumber baron John Egan built the village’s first mill there in 1846, establishing Quyon as a key player in the timber trade. After several fires stifled attempts at rebuilding the industry, a new building gave the site new life as a grist mill in 1906. It remained a grist mill under various owners for most of its history, until its final users locked the doors in 2010 for what looked like the last time.

Now, two local entrepreneurs are two weeks away from reopening the building once again.

After buying the property in a municipal selloff, husband-wife duo Marc Bergeron and Isabelle Lajoie have spent the past three years preparing the property for use as a flour mill, which they will open to the public on June 27.

When THE EQUITY spoke with the couple last year in the midst of renovations, they said the project was bigger than they first imagined. “A lot of things were rusted and past due,” Lajoie said of the old equipment that they had to get rid of and replace with nearly $1 million in brand-new milling machines.

While there were some hurdles along the way, both Bergeron and Lajoie’s vast toolkit of skills came in handy. Lajoie, an architectural draftsperson by trade, was able to do some restoration work on the 100-year-old building.

Bergeron, an electrician, rigged up a system to automate all of his machines so the entire process can start with the simple press of a button, with a safety mechanism to stop the chain of machines if something is amiss.

After receiving their first shipment of grain a few weeks ago, they will begin milling in the coming weeks. Their first batches will go out to local bakers for trials, and if the reviews are good they hope to be selling flour to stores and restaurants across the Pontiac.

“If it tastes good [and] we’re confident that our product meets the expectation then we will spread it in different groceries, and we’ll try to be everywhere,” Lajoie said, adding that they hope to have local grain suppliers once they have made a name for themselves.

‘The key for Quyon’

The couple, who run a farm in Bristol and both have their own jobs on the side, said they were fortunate enough to be able to finance the multi-million dollar project mostly by themselves, adding that would-be investors encouraged them to set up shop in the city despite their wishes to stay close to home.

“I want to increase the visibility of the Pontiac, in the rest of Quebec or Canada,” Bergeron said. “The Pontiac has so much to offer and we’re so far from everything else, we’re travelling everything out of the Pontiac when we should keep it here.”

The mill is only one part of the business plan. The couple has also opened an ice cream truck on the site and plans to have a café, restaurant, museum where they will display local historical artifacts, and a store selling local products. Some of these elements will be ready for the mill’s public opening on June 27.

They said they hope the retail store, which will feature local producers from across the Pontiac, can become a one-stop shop for Pontiac goods that will attract all local businesses as well as customers, be they locals, cottagers, or passers-through.

“With the store, the objective is to give a chance for every producer to have a business point,” Bergeron said. “I want to be an attractive pole for tourism.”

Municipality of Pontiac mayor Roger Larose said he is excited by the project, and commended Bergeron and Lajoie for their devotion to bringing it to life.

“They are really involved in it, they don’t quit, they never stop, they worked really hard to get that project going, and we’re lucky to have people like that who don’t get discouraged easily,” he said.

He said the municipality has been trying to work with the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais to get some money for the project, but so far has not been successful.

Larose said the municipality is looking at creative ways to get the couple some additional funding, including a possible loan from the municipality or a cultural grant for the museum.

“The economy is a little harder for everybody, but for a project like this at the municipality we’ve got to find a way to help them,” he said. “Something like this, that’s the key for Quyon.”

Continuing the legacy

While showing THE EQUITY around the building ahead of its opening, Lajoie gazed up at the six storeys of stacked planks that make up the century-old building’s walls, marvelling at the architectural detail that simply would not be replicated today.

“With the cost of wood today, nobody could build like this. It’s been standing there for so many years, it’s something we could not waste,” she said, adding that she could not pass up the opportunity to run a business in such a building.

While the milling will be done in a newer building adjacent to the old mill, the mill building will still be used for other parts of the business, including a museum that will employ people from the community part-time.

The couple has already acquired some artifacts to put on display, such as a 100-year-old flour sifter and will make space for community groups to put their own informational signs in the museum.

Deb Powell, president of local history group Friends of Chats Falls, said the group will install some signs about the history of Quyon and surrounding areas, including some about Egan and the village’s economic history.

“Hearing that the mill was going to be reopening and that they were working on it was greeted with great excitement, and that there’s going to be the museum component is absolutely wonderful,” she said.

“Our region is short on museums and anything that can help us and visitors learn more about the history is a really great opportunity.”

Powell said she believes the mill’s reopening will bring in tourists who want to discover the region, even if they are just taking the ferry from Fitzroy Harbour.

“This is a glowing example of what is possible when people believe in their region and have the resources to be able to do it,” she said.

Lajoie and Bergeron said they were fortunate enough to be able to buy the mill, and felt a responsibility to revive the building that has accompanied the village through ebbs and flows.

“The community needs it. If we don’t do something with this mill, the village is going to die just like another village,” she said. “We have so much to offer, so much history, I don’t think we can waste this thing.”

Bergeron said while many people called them crazy for making this investment, they are used to people saying they are unconventional. “We are a square peg that does not fit in the round hole,” he said.

The mill’s grand reopening on June 27 will feature ice cream, live music, and the retail store will be open to the public. Lajoie said the museum will also be open, and she will have installed glass panes in the second floor of the building so that first-floor observers can gaze up and see the impressive architecture above.

The day’s excitement will also feature a re-enactment of a historical duel involving John Egan put on by the Steampunk Association of Quebec, featuring Nerf weapons in the place of real guns.

On the occasion of Quyon’s 150th anniversary of incorporation, Lajoie said they hope their efforts can keep the business alive for future generations, both in their own family and in Quyon.

“If we die tomorrow we leave a legacy to our kids and to the community, that it’s something that can live even after us, just like John Egan did. His business stayed and it continued, well [we hope for us] it’s a bit of the same thing.”