Ormstown, Quebec

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Ormstown is a town in Quebec, Canada, located approximately 1 hour southwest from Montreal by car and 20 minutes from New York State in the United States by car. Its population is about 3,500 people. French speakers comprise about 65% of the population.

There are two elementary schools, one high school (Chateauguay Valley Regional), several restaurants and churches as well as its very own Ratté.

One of the main attractions in the town is Ormstown Fair. The fair is held during the first week of June each year. It was started in 1914 and is Quebec's earliest spring fair each year. Of interest in the animals department are prize winning farm animals of all sorts, jumping and other horse judging events, and a petting zoo. Weekend events include a tractor pull and a demolition derby. It is accompanied by the amusements of carnival rides and arcades. There is an extensive music schedule. No visit is complete without taking a look at the amazing ceiling upstairs at the Industrial Building.

The mayor, John McCaig, was recently re-elected and began his 2nd term in office with promises of eliminating the power lines on main street.^{[citation needed]}.

The town recently merged with the municipality of the surrounding parish of St-Malachie d'Ormstown.^{[citation needed]}

Ormstown is situated on the Chateauguay River in the heart of the Chateauguay Valley. It is a popular summer activity to bicycl along the Chateauguay River. The village has traces of an old dam, a source of power for mills in the pre-electric days.

There is an abandoned rail line linking villages in the Chateaguay Valley that has tourist potential if it was turned into a rail-to-trail bike path, but the local opposition to entering the 21st century market for recreo-tourism has defeated this idea. Ormstown, along with neighboring Franklin have tire farms where old tires are stored in large piles visible from outer space^{[citation needed]}.

People living outside the village only received electrification after World War II.

Located near Ormstown, in the hamlet of Alan's Corners, is the site of the Battle of Chateauguay, where on October 25, 1813 Canadian and Native forces fought and repelled an invading American force that was planning to attack Montreal during the War of 1812. There is a National Parks of Canada museum near the site of the battle.

There is a park north of the centre of town which is home to Ormstown Beach, an urban legend created and memorialized in the 1970s with "I've been to Ormstown Beach" bumper stickers.

In the 1950s, Ormstown became the site of a significant microwave radio relay station, part of the Trans Canada Telephone System. Initially, the system passed through the major cities of Canada via towers located on top of downtown telephone buildings. Subsequently, concerns were expressed that a disaster affecting any of those city cores, such as a war or uprising, would result in an interruption of the continuity of the transcontinental communications system. The solution was to locate a "bypass" microwave site outside each of those cities with links to the east and west as well as a short link into the city. The Ormstown facility was the bypass point for Montreal, but had further significance as it also included a link to the AT&T Long LinesTD2 microwave system in the United States.