Finished!

Free at last! I’ve pre-flighted and packaged up the Invisible Army.

Tomorrow it goes off to the printers – who knows what adventures await?

Still waiting for the final cover – trying to work in a late-breaking quote, but no biggie.

Now I can start work on my next project – an annotated bibliography of all the material that I consulted in the course of the research for the book. Any suggestions for the bibliographic style?

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Canadian Rivers Day Cleanup

May 29, 2009

 Courtesy of the RVCA

Canadian Rivers Day Cleanup

 

Sunday, June 14^th is Canadian Rivers Day and to help celebrate our local creeks and promote clean water, the City Stream Watch program is holding a stream  cleanup on Sawmill Creek in Ottawa.  

From its headwaters along Lester Road, Sawmill Creek flows north through the community of South Keys and along the heavily-urbanized Bank Street before eventually joining the Rideau River at Billings Bridge.   Because of its urban watershed, a lot of garbage tends to collect along the banks and in the stream itself which can harm the important fish and wildlife habitat along the creek.  

The Sawmill Creek Cleanup runs from 9 am to 3 pm, with on-site lunch generously provided by the Monterey Inn Resort and Conference Centre.  If you would like a sandwich, please register by Monday, June 8th.   

We will meet at Heron Park and wade along the creek from there.   Heron Park is off Heron Road east of the Airport Parkway and west of Bank St.  From Heron Road, turn north onto Clover St., and the community centre and park is on the left side of the street.  We will park and meet there at 9 am.    Please bring your own drinking water, sun block, rubber boots, chest waders (if you own them) or sturdy footwear.  

To register or for more information, please contact Julia Sutton – City Stream Watch Coordinator at citystreamwatch@rvca.ca or  613-692-3571  x 1180.

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Concrete Facts

Flash! The great wall of the Rideau is being rebuilt and for only $2 million –  read all about it this morning in the Ottawa Citizen. Minister John Baird is positioning this expenditure as necessary to remain attractive to tourists –  something like Botox ?

I recall reading that the post-WWII Department of Reconstruction paid then-big money to rebuild thousands of feet of concrete wall along the canal and around Dow’s Lake. This was aimed at stimulating an economy just making the transition to peace-time industries and looking for employment for returning soldiers.

When the Canal Basin was abandoned and filled during the late 1920’s, the original thousands of feet of concrete wall went up. There was 1455 feet worth from Connaught Place to Laurier Avenue on the west side; over 6100 feet of concrete went up on both sides of the canal from Bank to Bronson; 655 feet on the north side of Dow’s Lake, and a further 3000 feet planned to join this small wall to the rest of the canal.

The late 1920s was the flourishing era of the new concrete technology – it quickly pushed out the original stone masonry of the canal lock structures. Stone in the necessary sizes had become scarce, and thus expensive – concrete was one-third the price and didn’t need skilled masons, stone-cutters, etc.

Hartwells, Long Island, Burritt’s Rapids, Old Sly’s, Beveridges, Beckett’s Landing, Nicholson’s, Smiths Falls Combined, Chaffey’s, Jones Falls, Ottawa Locks – all had facilities reconstructed in concrete over this period.

I guess that we can’t go back and replace the “heritage” concrete with stone now, even if we could find it and the skills (and the money) to do it. It just wouldn’t qualify as “shovel-ready”.

Sic transit gloria mundi ……

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Repeat: “Meet, Greet, Eat, Sweet”

More info:

Ken advises that  his tour and talk is all about:

“Merrickville Landscapes:  Pre- and Post – canal landscapes of the area around the locks.”

A chance to stretch the old legs without undue danger of breaking a sweat – sweet!

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Meet, Greet, Eat, Sweet!

Howzat for alliteration, eh!

This Very Saturday – May 9th – The Annual Spring Meeting of the Friends of the Rideau – Legion Hall – Merrickville – 9:30 AM. Scawf down coffee and sweets, including coffee cake.

The Visual Landscape Strategy for the Rideau update from Heather Thomson, Heritage Planner, Parks Canada, is the highlight. It will be followed by a tour and talk by the one and only Ken Watson, webmaster, author and all-around guru of the Rideau.

See you there!

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Bird Watching Along The Rideau

Now that spring has sprung , we expect to see the return of the familiar birds – loons, ducks, and all the array of colourful and not so colourful creatures that give  the context.

The Migration Research Foundation (MRF) carries out Frontenac Bird Studies in the Frontenac Arch. They have a number of programs that they intend to launch this year – “Frontenac Breeding Birds”, “Project Whip-poor-will”, and “Frontenac Migratory Owl Watch”.

“Project Whip-poor-will” appeals to me. We’ve been visiting our cottage on Thirty Island Lake since 1975 . I distinctly remember hearing these plaintive calls in the evening,  sitting on the porch and contemplating nothing at all. Occasionally, we’d catch a glimpse of a gray-brown little bird flitting around a nearby big cedar tree. I don’t know when we stopped hearing them, but there’s been nothing over probably the past 5 years.

The loons are still coming – we  love listening to their ululating calls and watching the little ones paddling along behind their parents. The grandchildren think this is wonderful and endless merriment, trying to imitate the call and taking credit for a call-back. 

Much more at the web site, http://frontenacbirds.ca Many thanks to Margaret Brand of the Westport Review-Mirror for letting me in on this great program.

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Meeting The Past

In my earlier books on fishing guides along the Rideau, there were some 500 names that I found – there were probably another couple of hundred that I’m still not aware of. Life is like that.

Moving to a different topic – lock staff on the canal – has brought back the guides. One of the issues that the lock staff still face is managing water levels. Well, if water levels are lowered too quickly to a too low level, then it seems intuitive that fish will be hurt.

In the spring, it could ruin spawning. In the fall and winter, it would be fish survival, if they get caught in shallow holes that then freeze to the bottom. This also leads to winter kill of fur-bearing animals, such as muskrats ( ‘rats”). A lot of guides also trapped rats.

In the 20’s and 30’s, there were a number of petitions drawn up to protest water level management and that claimed massive fish and rat kills. While it seems that these claims were somewhat exaggerated (they were fishermen, after all), there was some truth to it and besides, it was possible to “fine tune” water levels. Anyway….

What I wanted to say is that I was surprised to see  the original petitions with the original signatures. Legendary guides such as Carl and Bob White of Elgin/Jones Falls, Fred Randolph of Chaffey’s Lock, Bill Lake of Newboro, and other guides from Westport, Seeley’s Bay, and Battersea are all there, along with names of guides that are new to me.

Great stuff! Now how to get this into a second edition of “Fish Tales” or maybe just put it into the almost-ready third book, “The Invisible Army”.

Stay tuned. If you have any views or questions, I’d like to hear them.

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The Invisible Army – On The March

I’m back trying to find additional sources of information on the operating staff who worked on the Rideau Canal.  I’ve gotten pretty reasonable coverage of the period 1832 – 1940.

Last week I came across lists of names for the early to mid- 1950s. I also have a partial list from Parks Canada of some of the operating staff for the 1970s to 1990s. There are a lot of holes in it.

It would seem to me that there are people out there who will recall members of their family who worked on the canal during and since the Second World War. I’d like to get the names, position ( lockmaster or canalman), date started and date finished/retired, as well as where they worked.

Another part of this covers those special groups, such as the “Floating Plant” crews. I’ve got a good list up to about 1930 and some scattered names after that. I’ve love to get any information that I can for the period 1930 -1990s.

The final list of names I’m compiling are those of the carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, stonecutters, axemen, derrickmen, etc., who did the major repair and reconstruction of the canal over the last 175 years. I’m good up to 1930 but then it’s pretty scattered after that. Any help in this area would be much appreciated.

Why am I doing all this? Well, I have a “social history” view that says that the people are just as important as the sticks, stones and great men who may have been involved and that their stories are just as interesting if told properly.

I feel that there is a lot of interest in this sort of thing along the Rideau, based on the reception that my first two books, “Pathfinders” and “Fish Tales” got. Incidentally, I’ve picked up a lot more information on the fishing, guiding and tourism industry while ploughing through the National Archives looking for lock workers.

Serendipity is my greatest support.

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Serendipity strikes again!

While browsing through some genuinely dusty old files, I came across just what I thought I would never see – several lists of names of Canal staff from the ’50s. Not only that, but there was some great material on “life on the locks”. Also, I found a name that I’d been looking for – a man whose descendents insisted worked on the canal but whom I hadn’t come across before.

In addition, there was some (new to me) information on the work vessels on the Rideau.

Serendipity strikes again!

There are still more lists in the files but by 4 PM I was bagged and went home, much chuffed!

Lots of domestic and other projects to occupy the weekend but next week, I’ll be back at it.

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Serendipity

Right now I’m  (not so) patiently filling out  spreadsheets full of the names of carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, etc., who worked on projects at the Rideau Canal or in quarries. There are many more than I thought. I’m up to 1910 or so, and have about 800 names . Well, strictly speaking, there may be only about 600, since some men worked at various crafts – masons worked as stonecutters, for example – it depended on what work was available. Over time, it seems that sons followed fathers, brothers / cousins? show up, and so on.

Interestingly (from my viewpoint) I’m coming across names of people whom I recognize as some of the fishing guides and game wardens from the turn of the 20th century up into the 1930’s.

I was thinking of whether or not to reprint my last book, Fish Tales, which is effectively “sold out”. Perhaps I could simply stick the updated information on guides, game wardens, etc., into my new book on “life on the locks”. I must mull this over.

Sue Pike, the prolific chronicler of life on the Rideau, sent me a nice note on this attempt at blogging.  Sue writes  what I think of as “virtual history”, as Professor Emeritus Brian Osborne is pleased to call tales of events that might not be strictly true, but are compelling to read anyway. Anything to get people interested in local history – “a spoonful of sugar …”. I admire her ingenuity in crafting her stories. You go, girl!

Well, back to work.

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