Saint-Victor is a municipality in the Beauce-Centre Regional County Municipality in the centre of the Beauce area, part of the Chaudière-Appalaches administrative region in Quebec, Canada. Saint-Victor's population is 2,313. History The area was first settled as Tring township municipality, established in 1804. Colonization peaked between 1834 and 1838. Settlers came from the neighboring areas of Saint-François (Beauceville), Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, Lauzon, and Bellechasse. The Tring township municipality was created in 1845, dissolved in 1847, and reestablished in 1855. In 1864 it split into the Saint-Victor-de-Tring and Saint-Éphrem-de-Tring municipalities. Saint-Victor-de-Tring was named after a Catholic parish, which was established in 1848 and became canonical in 1852. The parish included parts of Saint-François-de-Beauce parish and of Tring and Broughton townships. It was named after Pope Saint Victor I because the first chapel's construction started on July 28, Saint Victor's feast day. On March 1, 1922, Saint-Victor-de-Tring split into two municipalities, the village and the parish. Originally called Saint-Victor-de-Tring, the village municipality was renamed Saint-Victor in 1955. On December 31, 1996, the municipalities of the village and the parish merged again to form the current municipality of Saint-Victor. Fires destroyed much of the village in 1897, 1916, 1931, 1941, 1948 and 1958. Geography The village of Saint-Victor sits on a hill above the Le Bras Saint-Victor river valley. The nearby Lac Fortin, the largest lake in Beauce, is long and surrounded by houses and chalets. Another lake, Lac aux Cygnes, is shared between the municipalities of Saint-Victor and Saint-Benoît-Labre. The smaller Lac Castor lies between the two other lakes. The municipality of Saint-Victor is 55 percent forested. Culture and tourism A Car Demolition Derby has been held annually in mid-July for over 30 years on the Bar Chez Jessie parking lot. A rodeo, Festivites Western de Saint-Victor ("Saint-Victor Western Festival"), has been held every July since 1978, attracting 50,000 visitors for the week. An outdoor swimming and boating event, La Traversée du Lac Fortin, is held yearly at the end of July. La Course à obstacles is an amateur car race in a sand pit, held annually in mid-August. Economy Saint-Victor had an economic boom in the 1990s, when the relative weakness of the Canadian dollar helped local businesses increase exports to the United States. In the mid-2000s, exports declined when the Canadian dollar strengthened and Asian textile quotas ended. But residential construction continues, and the population has been rising every year. Major businesses