Clocher du Curé [English]

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For over 230,000 years,¹ Saint-Élzear’s subsoil had been hiding a secret. A large cave was officially discovered in 1976 by locals, although it had been known to the older generation, who reported seeing “steam rise from the site” in the winter. 

Could it contain the souls of the animals who, for centuries, met their tragic end, falling to the bottom of one of its shafts? The bones of just over 4,500 vertebrates ² piled up on top of each other in a slow underground decay, unbeknownst to the life continuing above.

The mapping of the cave led to the emergence of creative place names* for its depths; names that could be described as unofficial, since they appear on a map ⁴ drawn up by the Société québécoise de spéléologie (Québec Caving Association) and given that cave names are not subject to the rules of the Commission de Toponymie du Québec (Québec’s toponymy commision). A slight variation on one suggests the place name le clocher du Curé (The Priest’s Bell Tower), rather than simply Le Clocher as shown on the map. This detail personalizes the bell tower and highlights a form of experiential transmission through additional information known only to the local community—it was Father Delvida Leblanc, “the priest at the time,” who discovered this elongated portion of the cave.

With this addition to the place name marked on the map, are we unconsciously rehashing a game of collaboration/negotiation between the local population and scientists who came to work on furthering our knowledge of the cave?

In the same vein, there’s a certain balance between geological toponyms—la galerie des Gours (The Gallery of Gours) and l’autoroute de Calcite (The Calcite Highway), for example—and those rooted in oral tradition—le clocher du Curé and le puits des Motoneigistes (The Snowmobilers’ Shaft)—showing how the natural phenomenon can bring together the underground and overground, the near and the far, the past and the present. A bell tower with its own distinctive ring.

* Map of the Cave (speleonyms) explained by Michel Beaupré, former geologist

Galerie des Gours (Gallery of Gours): A small gallery perched on the west side of the cave, named after the gours, which create small dams covering the cave floor. Gours are small pools of water that are saturated with calcite, which then accumulates around the edge of the pool, forming dams that range in size from millimetres to metres.

Le Clocher (Bell Tower): A dome rising 10 metres in the salle des Ours, where beautiful calcite formations can be seen.

Puits des Motoneigistes (Snowmobilers’ Shaft): Twelve-metre entrance shaft providing access to the cave (it’s a collapse sinkhole). It was discovered during the winter of 1975–1976 by snowmobilers from Saint-Elzéar, and is what sparked the searches in the area.

Salle des Ours (Chamber of Bears): This section is named after the place where bear skulls covered in calcite were found among the rocky blocks on the floor. They were removed from the calcite crust, cleaned, and placed in the museum. 

Grande Salle (Great Chamber): The chamber located at the base of the entrance shaft. It is the largest chamber in the cave, hence its name.

Autoroute de Calcite (Calcite Highway): A small sub-horizontal gallery that you must crawl through. It connects the Grande Salle to the puits des Carcajous to the southwest. “As far as I can remember… It got its name within the first few years of exploration. It was named after the gallery’s calcified floor leading to the shaft. You have to crawl over a layer of calcite […] The term autoroute (highway) is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but the explorers’/surveyors’ enthusiasm prevailed!” (Clarification by Daniel Caron).

Puits des Carcajous (Wolverines’ Shaft): A 12-meter shaft at the end of the cave, where two complete wolverine skeletons were discovered.

Grande Fissure (Great Fissure): An open fracture located at the northern end of the Grande Salle. You cannot see it as it is located behind the breakdown visible from the metal platform (also referred to as the “straight side passage” in 1984).

Caverne des Apprentis spéléologues (Cave of the Apprentice Speleologists): The periodic spring discovered in 1999 by children from Saint-Elzéar (the apprentice speleologists in question), 2.5 km southwest of the Saint-Elzéar Cave and about 300 m northeast of Lac Duval-Sud. Phenomenon reported in 1984.

Caverne Anguleuse (Angular Cave): A mechanically formed cave discovered in the early ’90s, which underwent major clearing and excavation work in 1993. It was named by speleologist Michel Cadieux, who did not know what to call the non-karstic cave. It is located about 2 km north of the Saint-Elzéar Cave.

Grotte de l’Orignal (Cave of the Moose): Six kilometres northeast of the Saint-Elzéar Cave, the grotte de l’Orignal was discovered in 2022, and is named after the moose bones found within, one of which is 6,500 years old.

Chenal de la Vallée-Sèche (Dry Valley Canal): A purely descriptive name, relating to the valley downstream of the stream sink that is no longer occupied by a watercourse, and is therefore dry.

DÉCOUVRIR > tous les lieux-dits de cette ville

AUDIO

[FRENCH] Interview with Pâquerette Poirier and Michel Beaupré, May 15, 2025.

For a period of time, entrance to the cave was prohibited.

Father Delvida Leblanc. Other cave names.

The largest animal-bone deposit in eastern Canada.

“Prior generations […] would hunt there on snowshoes.”

Blowing cave.

[FRENCH] Interview with Marie-Louis and Monette Bourdages, April 10, 2025.

The first to set foot in the cave.

NOTES

¹ Gouvernement du Québec. Plan de conservation, réserve de biodiversité du Karst-de Saint-Elzéar, (Québec : Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs – Direction du patrimoine écologique et des parcs, 2009) or lagrotte.ca/notre-histoire.

² G. Prichonnet and M. A. Bouchard, ed., Actes du premier colloque du Patrimoine géologique du Québec, (Montréal : September 8-9, 2000), p. 19 – Appendix 1.

³ Société québécoise de spéléologie, Grotte de St-Elzéar : three-phase study, (Montréal : Ministère de l’environnement, Direction des réserves écologiques et des sites naturels, 1984-1985).

⁴ Daniel Caron, speleologist, story collected par Michel Beaupré, January 20, 2026.

IMAGES

1. and 2. The Priest’s Bell Tower, August 2019. Photo: Luc Le Blanc, archives of Michel Beaupré (photo shoot for the preparation of the book he co-authored with Daniel Caron, Cavernes du Québec – Guide de spéléologie, 2021). Note: all photos on this page taken by Luc Le Blanc were captured in this context.

3. La grotte de Saint-Elzéar-de-Bonaventure, à la découverte de la Gaspésie souterraine, 1986, Société québécoise de spéléologie, p. 13. With permission of Michel Beaupré.

4. Entrance to the cave, April 1977, expedition to collect concretions for dating (McMaster University and Société québécoise de spéléologie). With permission of Michel Beaupré.

5. Snowmobilers’ Shaft, January 1977 (caving ladder and self-belay rope, first visit of the Société québécoise de spéléologie). Michel Beaupré’s archives.

6. Snowmobilers’ Shaft, August 2019. Photo: Luc Le Blanc, Michel Beaupré’s archives.

7. Bones scattered on the entrance embankment, August 2019. Photo: Luc Le Blanc, Michel Beaupré’s archives.

8. to 17. August 2019. Photo: Luc Le Blanc, Michel Beaupré’s archives.