The area surrounding the mountain is a biosphere reserve, as one of the last remnants of the primeval forests of the Saint-Lawrence valley.

[4] The University has opened the western half of the mountain to visitors (at a fee) for hiking and cross-country skiing, as the Milieu Naturel (natural area).

[6] Mont Saint-Hilaire is home to a wide variety of fauna and flora, as well as a number of rare minerals, including some which were discovered on the mountain and some which are unique to the region.

The lake serves as a secondary reservoir of drinking water to the region, and, as such, swimming, fishing and boating are forbidden.

[11] Mont Saint-Hilaire is one of the Monteregian Hills, a group of erosional remnants of intrusive mountains spread across southern Quebec.

The most mineralogically interesting are the associated agpaitic (alkali rich, low aluminium and silicon) pegmatites, the intrusive breccias, and the hornfels derived from the metasomatised sedimentary wall rocks.

[15] As the last remnant in Quebec of the ancient Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests, the area has been a provincial biosphere reserve since 1978 and a federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary since 1960.

The mountain, particularly the Pain-de-Sucre summit, was well known by the Algonquin First Nations, who used it as a vantage point to survey the valley of the Richelieu River below.

[19] The combination of sugar bushes, the orchards alongside the mountain slopes, and the stream flowing from Lake Hertel which facilitated the construction of watermills provided for growth of the village in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

[20] In the nineteenth century, the mountain became a tourist destination, particularly after Tomas Edmond Campbell bought the seigneury from the Hertel de Rouville family in 1844.

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.

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.

[22] In the modern Abenaki language, Mont Saint-Hilaire is known as Wigwômadenizibo, meaning the small house-shaped mountain.

[17] The neighbouring Mount Yamaska is similarly referred to in Abenaki as Wigwômadenek (Wigwam-shaped mountain), without the diminutive suffix.

[20] 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.

[5] Mont Saint-Hilaire, owing to its stark form, has always played a significant part in the culture of the nearby region.

The first was the English painter John Bainbrigge, who made three separate watercolour paintings of the mountains around 1838, while garrisoned in the region.

[5] Some evidence suggests that Mont Saint-Hilaire, particularly the Pain de Sucre summit, was a sacred site of the Algonquin natives, who conducted rituals there.

According to different legends, it is either bottomless,[5] connected by underground passages to Lake Champlain,[5] or was formed as a direct result of the devil successfully convincing several of the early settlers to abandon their promise to attend mass at the newly established chapel every Sunday.

The Ufologist organisation UFO-Québec has claimed Mont Saint-Hilaire to be the central hub of all UFO observations in southern Quebec.

[5] The abundance of unusual minerals and crystals at Mont Saint-Hilaire, as well as the effect of its mass upon local magnetism, have also been of great interest to followers of the New Age movement and conspiracy theories.