Portage du Fort

Portage du Fort is a village and municipality in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in the southwest corner of the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The village lies across the Ottawa River from Chenaux, Ontario. At Portage du Fort there is a dam, the Chenaux Hydro Electric Power Station, and bridge across the Ottawa River. Portage du Fort is named after the portage trail which started here and would lead upstream around a set of falls on the Ottawa River.

However there are several hypotheses to explain the "Fort" portion. Among the most popular is the assumption that a fort was present here on the shore of the Ottawa River to keep provisions at the portage. It has been claimed that a fort called Dufort was flooded in the rapids at this location. However, some researchers argue that the fort in question has never existed and may be a reference to another fort at the mouth of the Coulonge River. Moreover, the word formerly did not always convey a military connotation and could be more or less synonymous with a village or hamlet, or even a post or warehouse which was fortified.