It includes the population centres of (Sainte-Thérèse-de-) Colombier, Les Îlets-Jérémie, and Saint-Marc-de-Latour.

While some logging took place in the middle of the 19th century, real impetus to its development was due to the economic crisis of the 1930s, when government authorities encouraged resettlement of the unemployed by opening the area for agriculture.

Also that year, pioneers set up 20 camps and built the road along the Saint Lawrence River.

In 1937, the post office opened, then designated as Rivière-Colombier, named after the Colombier River, a tributary of the St. Lawrence that flows through the municipality.

[1][4] In 1946, the Municipality of Colombier was formed, named after the river, which in turn was named after Charles-Roger des Colombiers (1628-1687), fur trader, citizen and alderman of Quebec, who had been granted a fief in that territory in 1677.