The Bourbon River (in French: rivière Bourbon) is a tributary of the Bécancour River. It flows in the municipalities of Sainte-Sophie-d'Halifax, Plessisville, Quebec (parish), Plessisville (town), Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes and Princeville, in the L'Érable Regional County Municipality (MRC), in the administrative region of Centre-du-Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
Geography
The main neighboring hydrographic slopes of the Bourbon River are: north side: Bécancour River; east side: Bécancour River, Noire River; south side: Blanche River, Bulstrode River; west side: Jacques stream, Bécancour River.
The Bourbon River takes its source from streams located in the forest area south of Plessisville.
From its source, the Bourbon River flows on in the following segments: west, in the municipality of Sainte-Sophie-d'Halifax, to the village bridge of Sainte-Sophie-d'Halifax; north-west, crossing the village, to the municipal limit of Plessisville (parish); north to a road; north-west, up to the confluence of "Ruisseau de la Savane"; north, up to the bridge located south of the village of Plessisville; northwesterly, crossing seven bridges in Plessisville, to the limit of the parish municipality of Plessisville (parish); north-west, up to the municipal limit of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes; westward, winding through the municipality of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes and passing south a large area of marsh, up to the municipal limit of Princeville; westward, winding through the municipality of Princeville and passing between two areas of marshland, to its mouth.
The Bourbon river empties on the southeast bank of the Bécancour River upstream of the confluence of the Jacques brook, downstream of the hamlet Plage-Patry and downstream of the confluence of the Noire River. This confluence is located north of the village of Plessisville.
Toponymy
In 1815, the surveyor and geographer Joseph Bouchette designated this watercourse on his map under the toponym "Rivière Blanche". This name of the river was still in use during the second half of the 19th century, that is to say at the beginning of the colonization of this sector. At the beginning of 21st century, the residents of the sector still designate this watercourse "Rivière Blanche", despite the officialization of its name "Bourbon" in 1924 by the "Commission de géographie du Québec", following the recommendation of the "Geographic Commission of Canada".
Some theses are known on the possible origin of the hydronym "Bourbon". The first supposes a relationship with a descendant of a pioneer who came to New France in the 17th century. Note that a man named Merdieu dit Bourbon left his traces in archival documents in the Saint-Gabriel and Notre-Dame-des-Anges seigneuries, in the first half of the 18th century. A second thesis makes a link with the royal house of Bourbon. A third thesis assumes that the Bourbon hydronym is derived from the Gallic collective name Borvo or Bormo designating the divinity of thermal springs. The words mud and mud have the same root; these words could have initially inspired the authors of this name.