Hochelaga (village)

Hochelaga (village)

Hochelaga meaning "beaver dam" or "beaver lake" was a St. Lawrence Iroquoian 16th century fortified village at the heart of, or in the immediate vicinity of Mount Royal in present-day Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Jacques Cartier arrived by boat on October 2, 1535; he visited the village on the following day. He was greeted well by the Iroquians, and named the mountain he saw nearby, Mount Royal. Several names in and around Montreal and the Hochelaga Archipelago are due to him.

A stone marker recalling the former village was placed in 1925 on land adjacent to McGill University, believed to be in the vicinity of the location of the village visited by Cartier in 1535. The site of the marker is designated a National Historic Site of Canada.