Magog (; ) is a city in southeastern Quebec, Canada, about east of Montreal at the confluence of Lake Memphremagog—after which the city was named—with the Rivière aux Cerises and the Magog River. It is a major centre and industrial city in the Regional County Municipality of Memphremagog. The city lies in the Eastern Townships tourist region. In 2002 the City of Magog was merged with the Township of Magog and the Village of Omerville as part of the municipal reorganization in Quebec. Etymology "Memphremagog" comes from the Abenaki word mamhlawbagak, which means "large expanse of water" or "vast lake." "Magog" is believed to be a truncation of the lake's name. However, it could also come from namagok and namagwôttik, which means "the lake where there is brook trout." Others have theorised that the name has Biblical origins in Gog and Magog, or that it refers to an ancient city by the same name. History The Abenaki were the first to inhabit the region and had long visited the Memphremagog and its waterways. The town was founded in 1776, when Loyalists emigrated from nearby Vermont. They called it The Outlet, referring to the flow of water emptying into the Magog River from the lake. Ralph Merry, who is considered the founder of Magog, was an American Revolutionary who immigrated to Lower Canada in 1799 and settled in Bolton, to the west of the lake. He bought up all the neighboring lots, including the village of Magog, where he went on to act as its mayor, judge, and developer. In 1821, he built a house there, which is the oldest standing house in the city. It was formally named Magog in 1855. At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th, the city's economy was dominated by the textile industry, most notably by a cotton mill operated by Dominion Textile. It wasn only in the 1960s and the 1970s that the city's economy would achieve desperately needed diversification via tourism, services, and the development of the industrial park. In 2002 the City of Magog was merged with the Township of Magog and the Village of Omerville as part of the municipal reorganization in Quebec. Notable people Rouville Beaudry, Quebec nationalism activist who served in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec Pierre Bélanger, volleyball player who competed in the 1976 Olympics Nicolas Boulay, Canadian Football League player Reginald W. Buzzell, U.S.