SAGUENAY, Quebec—When Nazi planes were blitzing London during World War II and the U.S. needed to build more aircraft and munitions in a hurry, it helped turn this remote place in the Canadian forest into an aluminum-production juggernaut.
Thousands of Canadians labored through frigid conditions to build smelting pots and a hydropower plant to fuel them—in just 18 months. Ever since then, Saguenay’s aluminum plants have supplied American industry.
