Ottawa River timber trade
[1] The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The industry came about just before[2] Napoleon's 1806 Continental Blockade in Europe, forcing the United Kingdom to require a new source for timber, especially for its navy and shipbuilding.
American entrepreneurs at that time then began to immigrate and build their operations near the Ottawa River, creating some of the world's largest sawmills.
These lumber barons, such as John Rudolphus Booth, Henry Franklin Bronson, and Ezra Butler Eddy, founded mills and industries, alongside investing in public infrastructure and private residences, which were essential to the growth and development of early Ottawa.
The sawed lumber industry benefited from transportation improvements, first the Rideau Canal[6] linking Ottawa with Kingston on Lake Ontario, and much later railways that began to be created between Canadian cities and northern U.S. markets.
Squaring of timber to make rafts had become too wasteful and costly a solution to transportation, new hydro obstructions along the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers had made it more difficult, and the growing road and rail networks, like the Canadian Atlantic Railway, founded by J.R. Booth in 1897 and spanning the region between Lake Huron, Ottawa, Montreal, and northern Vermont, had proven capable of supplying to the newer domestic and urban newspaper and magazine markets which had become the primary demand.
[9] In 1806, Napoleon ordered a blockade to European ports, blocking Britain's access to timber required for the Royal Navy from the Baltic Sea.
[8] The British government instituted the tariff on the importation of foreign timber in 1795 in need of alternate sources for its navy and to promote the industry in its North American colonies.
A September 30, 1869 American statement showed that lumber was, by far Canada's biggest export to the U.S., at over 424 million feet, worth $4,761,357.
[16] The 1875 lumber merchants list included Jos Aumond; Batson & Carrier; Bennett, Benson & Co.; H. B. D. Bruce; T. C. Brougham; T. W. Currier & Co.; G. B.
Hall; Hamilton & Bros.; J. T. Lambert; Moses W. Linton; M. McDougall; John Moir; Isaac Moore; Robert Nagle; R. Ryan; Albert W. Soper; Wm.
The mid-1820s saw a large number Irish immigrants arrive in Wright's Town to construct the Rideau Canal and once completed, the labourers took to the rafts.
[24] The first timber slide on the Ottawa River was built on the North Side near the Chaudière Falls by Ruggles Wright, son of Philemon, following a visit to Scandinavia to learn of lumbering techniques there.
[23] This section of the Chaudière Falls where the first slide was built was on the north side of the Ottawa river, near the nicknamed "Little Kettle" waterfall.
[27] The trip to the timber shipping yards in Quebec, headquarters of many lumber exporting firms, often took as long as six weeks.
[10] It was manned by Philemon, his 17-year-old son Tiberius and three crewmen—London Oxford, Martin Ebert and John Turner—along its trip to Quebec City.
[21] The raft had to be broken up into cribs to clear the Long Sault Rapids[21] (the original Anishinaabe name was Kinodjiwan, meaning long-rapids, invisible since the river was dammed at the Carillon Generating Station).
This delay in their schedule cause Wright to miss his contract and left him unable to sell the lumber until months later.
These series of events led to Wright setting president for future squared timber trade in the Ottawa Valley.
[1] The first timber slide on the Ottawa River was built by Philemon's son, Ruggles Wright, on the North Side near the Chaudière Falls following a visit to Scandinavia to learn of lumbering techniques there.
Harris and Bronson set up a large plant incorporating some modern features, which ushered in other entrepreneurs in an "American Invasion" to follow.
John Rudolphus Booth was one of Canada's largest lumber barons and most successful entrepreneurs;[31] he also worked at the Chaudière.
In 1853, Baldwin, Bronson, Harris, Leamy and Young began to erect lumber mills, and from 1856 to 1860, Perley, Pattee, Booth and Eddy followed.
[33] Allan Gilmour, Sr. was part of a Scottish merchant family whose lumber interests began in Canada in New Brunswick, then Montreal and then Bytown in 1841.
Thomas McKay, sometimes considered as one of the founding fathers of Ottawa for his work in building and politics, built a sawmill at New Edinburgh.
It also stimulated economic growth in both provinces, and J.R. Booth contributed greatly to the construction of the Canada Atlantic Railway.
The huge industrial operations at LeBreton Flats and the Chaudiere Falls caused pollution and damage to the lands.
LeBreton Flats and the Chaudière Falls were the locations of some of Canada's largest lumber mills, including those of Booth and Bronson.
Eastern Ontario's Irish Catholics mainly from Cork along with the Franco-Ontarians made up the majority of Rideau Canal builders and were heavily employed in the area's extensive lumber industry.
[1] Today the Coulonge chute is a popular tourist attraction with activities such as ziplining and obstacle courses or visitors can just get a view of the falls.
