Walking Tour Stop 3

In the late 1700s, settlers began arriving from two directions to establish settlements in Chief Pinesi’s hunting grounds. The first wave of settlers traveled north from the St Lawrence River, drawn by the rapids for mill sites along the upper reaches of the Rideau River. Concurrently, a second wave ascended the Ottawa River, settling in the northern part of Chief Pinesi’s territory. As a result, his territory became increasingly squeezed from both the north and south sides.

The rising number of settlers posed a challenge as they hunted the same animals as Chief Pinesi, including elk, deer, wild turkey, passenger pigeon, bear, beaver, moose, and occasionally woodland caribou. The construction of the Rideau Canal in the late 1820s led to the creation of numerous dams, resulting in the flooding of shorelines and transforming the river into a series of elongated lakes. This alteration destroyed fishing sites at rapids and spawning grounds, additionally, logging activities contributed to the destruction of the forests.

In May 1813, with the Niagara peninsula facing a substantial invasion by superior US forces, the British sought additional reinforcements. Around 120 Indigenous warriors from Oka, including Mohawks, Algonquins, and Nipissings, answered the call, led by Chief Pinesi and two of his sons. Employing guerrilla tactics, they engaged in warfare, continuously harassing US troops. Their efforts culminated in the Battle of the Beaver Dams, where US forces, apprehensive of retaliation by Indigenous warriors, surrendered to a British officer, unaware of the true size of the British contingent.

The British portrayed the victory as their own achievement, downplaying the role of the warriors, most of the Oka warriors returned home disappointed with the lack of plunder. Despite the common practice of plunder in warfare at the time, many warriors received minimal supplies instead of pay from the British. Chief Pinesi remained the last traditional Algonquin leader to claim hunting territories around Ottawa, particularly near the Rideau and Chaudière Falls. Chief Pinesi pleaded with the government to preserve a portion of their ancestral hunting and trapping grounds from encroaching settlement and timber development. Unfortunately, their appeals went unanswered, and their traditional lands spanning the Ottawa Valley were never granted protection.

Following the conclusion of the War of 1812, the construction of the Rideau Canal commenced, driven by reasons deemed vital for military strategic purposes. In the aftermath of the war, the British government, apprehensive of potential American reprisals, deemed the creation of the Rideau Canal crucial. It aimed to establish a defensible route for the transportation of troops and supplies from Montreal to Kingston and other parts of Upper Canada. However, subsequent to its construction, no further conflicts with the Americans ensued. Consequently, the Rideau Canal’s significance shifted towards industrial and commercial transportation and, eventually, recreational use.

Under the supervision of Lt-Col. John By, Superintending Engineer of the Rideau Canal project and officer of the Royal Engineers, the project involved thousands of laborers and reached completion within six years. The Royal Engineers were supported by two companies from the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, the 7th and the 15th.

The construction of the Rideau Canal is widely regarded as one of the remarkable engineering marvels of the 19th century. While the development of the Rideau Canal led to the establishment of Bytown, it was the prosperous pine timber trade that ultimately exerted a more profound influence on shaping the region’s future.

Bytown, now known as Ottawa, the capital of Canada, was founded in 1826 as the headquarters for the construction of the Rideau Canal. However, a quarter-century earlier, Philemon Wright had established Wright’s Town, present-day Gatineau, Quebec, on the opposite side of the Ottawa River in 1800. Initially focused on farming, Wright and his fellow settlers found themselves surrounded by vast pristine forests, predominantly consisting of majestic pine trees, stretching as far as the eye could see. As fate would have it, Wright’s successful navigation of the first squared-timber raft down the Ottawa River in 1806 coincided with Napoleon’s strategic blockade of the Baltic, obstructing the wartime British Navy’s access to its traditional supply of Norwegian pine. One of Philemon Wright’s business partners, who accompanied him on his first raft (and from whose land the raft launched) was the first Black person in the Ottawa Valley, Mr. London Oxford, who arrived with Wright from Massachusetts in 1800.

Canada’s plentiful reserves of tall, straight first-growth white pines, especially those in the Ottawa Valley, quickly became highly sought after. As British demand diminished by the 1840s, the lumber industry in the Ottawa Valley pivoted towards the profitable markets of the United States. Entrepreneurs like Bronson, Eddy, Young, and Booth arrived in the region and erected sawmills along the banks of the Ottawa River, utilizing its swift-flowing waters to drive their large timber saws. These sawmills would go on to establish world records for production.

By 1902, the nineteen sawmills in the Ottawa Valley collectively produced a staggering 613 million board feet of lumber annually. Among them, J. R. Booth’s sawmill, reputed to be the largest globally, stood out, contributing 125 million board feet of lumber to the total production. (In fact, the very spot where you are standing among the tulips would have been situated within one of Booth’s expansive lumber stockpile yards!)

Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855, became capital of the Canadas in 1857, and capital of the new nation of Canada in 1867. However, even throughout the initial decades of Confederation, the lumber industry continued to overshadow the federal government as the primary local employer and economic pillar. Naturally, times would evolve. With the gradual depletion of the seemingly boundless supply of white and red pine from the Ottawa Valley, Ottawa’s lumber industry progressively shifted towards pulp and paper production.

In present times, the lumber and paper mills of Ottawa-Gatineau have largely disappeared, and forestry operations in the Ottawa Valley have significantly diminished in scale. While the lumber industry and the construction of the Rideau Canal played pivotal roles in shaping the destiny of the Ottawa-Gatineau region, it is essential to take a step back and acknowledge the profound negative impacts they left behind.

The environmental toll was immense. Additionally, the Ottawa Valley landscape underwent irreversible changes with the near-complete destruction of its original woodlands and the alteration of its watercourses. These transformations marked the end of the traditional way of life for the Indigenous Peoples of the Ottawa Valley, who had never relinquished ownership of their territory to European settlers.

Additional links:

https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/bytown-pamphlets/pamphlets-available-for-download/the-upper-ottawa-timber-trade

https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/ottawa-stor

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