Andrew Hamilton Gault. While he saw to the development of the region, Gault also insisted on protecting the wild nature of Mont Saint-Hilaire, where he planned to build a mansion home for his retirement. Construction of the mansion began in 1957, but Gault lived there a mere three weeks before he died. He bequeathed the property to McGill University, where he had received his education, which made it into the "Gault Reserve". The natural value of the mountain led to its being proclaimed a migratory bird sanctuary in 1960. In 1970, the mountain was divided into a preservation area, closed to the public, and an area open to the public, which became the responsibility of the (Nature Conservation Centre) in 1972. In 1978, the mountain was made the first world biosphere reserve of Canada as a result of it being the last remnants of the primeval forests of the Saint-Lawrence Valley. Although initial documents indicate the biosphere reserve covered large areas surrounding the mountains, it appears that today, the effective definition of the biosphere reserve corresponds to that of the Gault Reserve. Names of Mont Saint-Hilaire In the modern Abenaki language, Mont Saint-Hilaire is known as Wigwômadenizibo, meaning the small house-shaped mountain. The neighbouring Mount Yamaska is similarly referred to in Abenaki as Wigwômadenek (Wigwam-shaped mountain), without the diminutive suffix. The mountain was formerly rendered by Europeans as Wigwomadensis (Wigwam-shaped mountain). When Samuel de Champlain visited the mountain, he named it Mont Fort (which can be interpreted as "Fort Mountain" or "Mount Strong"). The establishment of the town and parish of Chambly to the south led to the mountain temporarily becoming Mont Chambly in the later seventeenth century (although the name persisted in English until at least 1830). After 1697, the mountain became known as Mont Rouville, after the newly established seigneury of the Hertel de Rouville family. When the Campbell family replaced the Hertel de Rouville family, the mountain took up the name Mont Beloeil, after the nearby municipality of Beloeil, on the other side of the Richelieu River. However, the name Mont Saint-Hilaire, after the parish of Mont-Saint-Hilaire established at the foot of the mountain, became prevalent by the early twentieth century. Even so, quarrels between inhabitants of Beloeil and Mont-Saint-Hilaire, both near the mountain, as to which the mountain should be named after lasted well into the twentieth century, with the town newspapers of Beloeil attempting to