Covering and forming a large open crescent to the North, "Lac des Quinze" is a major expansion of the Ottawa River. With a length of and a maximum width of, "Lac des Quinze" gets its supply on the East side by the Ottawa River which crosses Lac Simard and Grassy Lake. In addition, "Lac des Quinze" is powered by:
South side: the Fraser River that flows into Gillies Bay, one of many bays created by the particular configuration of the water body;
East side: McFadden River draining the waters of Rondelet Lake and Béquille Creek;
After crossing the "Lac des Quinze", the current of the Ottawa River leaves the Baie Perron to flow on westerly through a series of rapids: Cypress, Kakake, Islands and Fifteen. At the end of this segment of the river, the current flows through the "First Fall" near the village of Notre-Dame-du-Nord, Quebec. Then the waters flow to the west, in Paulson Bay north of Lake Timiskaming. The municipalities administering the territory of "Lac des Quinze" are: Guérin and Angliers and Latulipe-et-Gaboury, Quebec. The shape of the lake surrounds by the southwest Lac des Quinze Biodiversity Reserve, located in the territory of Angliers. This reserve stops in the East at the Little Roger River and in the North, at "Des Wasps Lake". A bay of "Lac des Quinze", deep in, stretches northward in the middle of the reserve territory.
Toponymy
A March 1868 survey report by Lindsay Russell reports the "Lac des Quinze". The origin of the name of the lake and the "Des Quinze River" is explained in another survey report dated May 1873 by Walter McOuat, who writes that he "went up the Ottawa to "Lac des Quinze", a distance of about,... This part of the Outaouais is designated in the locality under the name "Les Quinze", which comes from the fact that, to go up in a canoe, it is necessary to make about fifteen portages ". In the middle of the 19th century, logging in the "Lac des Quinze" sector began at the initiative of logging companies. Between 1884 and 1910, several settlers gradually settled on the south shore of "Lac des Quinze". In 1883, John Morrison, a former employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, built a trading post at Gillies Bay to trade furs with the Amerindians for others products. Around 1912, a hydroelectric dam was built on the Ottawa River, at the outlet of Lake Quinze. In 1947, this barrage of "Des Quinze" will then be raised and three other dams, with power stations, will appear downstream. The toponym "Lac des Quinze" was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Bank of Place Names of the Commission de toponymie du Québec.
