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Pays d'en Haut

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited March 7, 2014

Pays d'en Haut [French "up country" or "upper country"] was an expression used in the fur trade to refer to the area to which the voyageurs travelled to trade.
Great Lakes, New France

 In the days of New France it referred to what is now northwest Québec (except for the King's Posts), most of Ontario, the area west of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes and beyond to the Canadian prairies. Later usage was limited to the prairies and today pays d'en haut is used in Québec to refer to the northwestern part of the province.

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