Samuel de Champlain was the first European to travel the network of inland waters from Georgian Bay to the Bay of Quinte with the Hurons in 1615. It was this same route that would later be canalized and become the Trent–Severn Waterway.
Military origins The desire for a communications route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron had been a topic of discussion as early as 1785, and gained new importance with the opening of the
War of the First Coalition in 1793. Had the newly formed
United States entered the conflict on the side of their French allies, they could have cut access to the upper great lakes at
Detroit or
Lake St. Clair. This would have denied waterborne access to the important British trading post at
Michilimackinac. The route was used for its original military purpose sparingly during the
War of 1812, primarily to ship supplies to a naval depot built at Holland Landing. Its rough location is marked today by a large
anchor that was being shipped from
Chatham, England to
Wasaga Beach (then known as Schooner Town), but was abandoned in Holland Landing when the war ended. The lack of convenient access to the upper lakes demonstrated by the war led to new calls for inland waterways for military use, and led to the construction of a number of canals to provide rapid access to the
Upper Canada area. These included canals at
Grenville,
Chute-à-Blondeau and
Carillon Canals, all along the Ottawa River, as well as the most ambitious of them all, the -long
Rideau Canal from today's
Ottawa to
Kingston. Together, they connected Montreal, Ottawa and Lake Ontario, bypassing significant hazards along the
Saint Lawrence River and long stretches of open water on Lake Ontario. The need for a similar route bypassing Yonge Street and providing access to the upper lakes remained an issue, and several surveys in the area were carried out between 1815 and 1827. Prominent among these was a survey made by Catty in 1819, which concluded that no reasonable alternative to the Trent River was obvious on the eastern end of the route. Unfortunately, its circuitous route ran to
Rice Lake before ending up only from the shores of Lake Ontario. Further, the Imperial government's interest was tempered by the cost of the Rideau, originally budgeted at $2,370,000 but eventually costing more than $4 million by the time it opened in 1832. Several attempts to raise the funds for the Trent system using local sources, including a proposed
lottery, all failed and the plans remained dormant.
Bethune's lock James Gray Bethune was a businessman in the port town of
Cobourg with a steamship company working Lake Ontario. He was skeptical that the Trent connection would ever be built, but he felt that the inland sections north of
Peterborough still offered considerable commercial prospects. The problem of connecting to Lake Ontario could be solved by other means. Bethune, a major player in local politics, led efforts to build a railway from Coburg, which would either have to route around Rice Lake through other counties, or build directly over it.
Port Hope, a short distance to the west and a major competitor for Coburg's shipping traffic, proposed both a road and a canal. Port Hope's location at the western end of Rice Lake placed them slightly closer to the lake than Coburg, and offered a direct land route to Peterborough around the western tip of the lake while remaining within their
Northumberland County. By 1832, Bethune had completed his first plan for a combined canal and rail network. This would start in Coburg and run via railway to Sully (today known as Harwood), where it would connect to steamers on Rice Lake. These would cross the lake to the
Otonabee River, providing access to southern Peterborough. Here they could transship via
stagecoach to Bridgenorth on
Lake Chemong. Locks at Purdy's Mill (today's
Lindsay) and
Bobcaygeon would provide access to an extended area including
Pigeon Lake,
Stony Lake,
Sturgeon Lake and
Lake Scugog, known collectively as the Back Lakes (today known as "the Kawarthas"). Bethune launched the
Pemedash on Rice Lake in 1832, providing daily service between Peterborough and Coburg. The boat was a flat-bottomed design able to travel in shallow waters, more a powered barge than passenger steamer. It had side-wheels and was powered by what one passenger called a "feeble eighteen-horsepower engine". A second steamer of the same design was built in Peterborough, sawn in half, carried overload to Bridgenorth and launched as the
Sturgeon on 5 September 1833. Both steamers proved popular; in the less than three months the lakes were open to traffic in its first year of operation, the
Sturgeon made 61 trips, delivering 60 barrels of pork and 55 tons of other cargo. A group organized by Bethune met on 1 June 1833 to review tenders for the construction of a series of locks on the Back Lakes. However, they received only two tenders, both for the lock at Bobcaygeon. After several additional meetings and a visit to the site, the contract was awarded to Pierce, Dumble and Hoar for a price of $8,000. The company's crew arrived on 2 August and began construction immediately. The rest of the season was taken up with basic construction, blasting out the lock from the limestone with
blackpowder. When the weather turned cold on 14 November the lock was nowhere near complete, and the contract was extended. By the time the land thawed in the spring, Bethune was insolvent due to bookkeeping irregularities at his branch of the
Bank of Upper Canada in Coburg, likely due to his use of some of these funds for the transport scheme. His steamers were sold off to new owners. As part of the formation of the new Province, the former Inland Water Commission was moved to the new government's Board of Works. The new government broke the power of the Family Compact, and reduced the influence of its French counterpart, the
Château Clique. But it also resulted in a body whose decisions often separated along regional lines. By this time a new force had entered the process,
central Ontario lumber barons. They used the many rivers of the province to float logs to mills, notably
John Rudolphus Booth's mill in
Ottawa, at that time the largest sawmill in the world. Locks presented a barrier to their
rafts, as would any traffic on the rivers, so they were opposed to any further work on the system. Examining the project, the Board of Works concluded that a route with as many locks as Baird had proposed would take so long to transit that it would not be useful militarily, and thus of little interest to the new federalist government. They agreed to continue construction of the four locks contracted in 1836, largely as a way to employ the many immigrants arriving in the area. They showed little interest in the rest of the route, and agreed to allow the rest of the surveyed lock locations to be turned into
timber slides. The first to make the attempt was the long-planned Cobourg and Rice Lake Railway. Having originally been planned in 1831 and chartered in 1834, the
Panic of 1837 and Rebellion later that year upset their plans to the point where the company's charter lapsed in 1840. Next was the
Peterborough and Port Hope Railway (P&PH), the competing plan from Port Hope, which had the advantage of being able to loop around the western edge of Rice Lake to produce an all-land route directly to Peterborough. This so worried Cobourg interests that they hired Baird to plan a road route, and opened the Cobourg Plank Road in 1846. This stymied the P&PH, who decided to reroute their line westward to
Beaverton on Lake Simcoe. Construction was beset by arguments between Rubidge and the construction team led by Goodwin. From late 1886, Rubidge was under extreme pressure from the press and the politicians along the line, and he became increasingly paranoid, suspicious of everyone involved in the project for their real or imagined attempts to have him removed. He took his anger out on the project as a whole, and especially Goodwin, who began to complain to Rubidge's superiors in Ottawa. Rubidge responded by appointing two of his helpers to watch over the construction, harassing Goodwin and his workers continually with a range of problems, even locking up the canoes of the government engineers so they could not get around the sites. Goodwin's complaints grew in frequency and anger, and finally he demanded that John Page, the engineer in the Department of Canals and Railways overseeing all canal work, visit the site. This request eventually led to Rubidge's removal from the oversight position and his replacement by David Stark, at that time the superintendent of Ottawa River canal projects. Construction was finally completed in 1887, and the first boat passed through the entire section on 26 October.
Another hiatus, another report The
federal elections in early 1887 led to Macdonald winning a solid majority in spite of promising nothing to the canal. This cost the Conservatives several seats in the area, but his support of the protectionist
National Policy won him many others in the area among businesses that were worried about being flooded by cheap US products. The press was filled with comments to the effect that Macdonald had only been interested in the canal as a vote-getting measure; the Peterborough
Examiner led the charges, complaining that "Whatever expenditure there had been on the scheme is properly chargeable to the capital (political) account and this is the explanation of all the delay and trifling with this important work." With every delay the canal became more important to the locals, prompting one long-time Macdonald supporter, Reverend J. Logan, to be quoted saying "Henceforth I have only one politic and that is the Trent Valley Canal." Rubidge was still involved in the Trent at this time, having been tasked with producing a survey of the complete route and cost estimates for its completion. After the election, John Page sent Rubidge back to Peterborough to complete this work. Rubidge took the opportunity to return to the worksite and claim he was always in command and had left only for personal reasons. Stark had not yet arrived, and with the work essentially completed by this time, no one seems to have been willing to invest the effort to find out what was going on. When Stark did begin to assert some control, he started by asking one of the other government engineers working with Rubidge, Aylmer, to set up a new office in Peterborough. As he left, Aylmer took the opportunity to break into Rubidge's desk and take the now long-overdue survey with him, prompting a break-and-enter charge which Aylmer countered with a libel charge. Another of the government engineers, Fuller, ended up in a fist fight with Rubidge over a property dispute, leading to Fuller's conviction on assault and his dismissal from the department. Looking for any reason to cancel further work, or at least delay it, Macdonald inquired about the status of Rubidge's survey. Rubidge promised it would be ready for 20 August, but it never appeared. Stark telegraphed Rubidge on 1 September about it, and Rubidge stated that his fight with Fuller had put it off. It was finally delivered in 15 November. The report closely followed Baird's plans completed decades earlier, changing only its ultimate outlet on the west, following the North River to
Waubaushene. He placed the cost at $8,684,650, including another 71 locks in addition to the 12 already built or nearing completion, as well as of dug canal. Page added another $1.1 million in ancillary charges like land claims and completion of the work already underway, bringing the total for the entire waterway to $9,984,500. This compares with Baird's original estimate of $2.5 million, a number that Stark had personally backed in 1880. This prompted Stark to send in his own estimate, returning to the original Severn route in the west, and calculated the new total to be only $3 million. This latest controversy was just what Macdonald was waiting for. Pointing out the huge differences in the two estimates, on 8 October 1887 he formed the Trent Valley Canal Commission to study the issue. This was immediately denounced as a measure "to give them an opportunity to get out of the work." This is precisely what happened; the first meeting of the Commission was not scheduled until 1 April 1888, and the final report was not expected until after the next election. A series of interviews were carried out and questionnaires sent which garnered little response, which the Commission took as evidence that there was little interest in the topic. In 1890 an interim report caused Macdonald to suggest that "Some further enquiry is necessary". One of the few positive results was a measure of the water supply by the new chief engineer of the Trent, Richard Rogers, that suggested there was a million times more water available than would be needed for the entire route to lock 100 times a day for the 200-day navigation period. The Commission handed in its final report on 17 December 1890. They accepted Rogers' calculation of the amount of water available and generally agreed that the routes were possible and even desirable. They also suggested that some of the more complex areas could be greatly simplified by replacing a series of locks with a single hydraulic boat lift, and recommended further study into this option. They also left considerable room for interpretation as to the desirability of completing the works at either end, allowing politicians to pick and chose what sections, if any, they agreed to fund.
Decision to complete By the time the Commission filed their report, parliament was out for the
1891 elections, just what Macdonald had hoped would happen by forming the Commission. As the election continued, it appeared it would be a very close fought result, and Macdonald decided to use the Trent to shore up any seats he could. On 3 March he was personally handed a letter by D.R. Murphy, a Conservative organizer in the Trent area, asking for any help he might provide. Macdonald, ill and bedridden, replied with a telegram stating "Trent Valley Canal Commission have reported favourably on the completion of the scheme. Parliament will be asked next session for a grant for the purpose." Nine of the thirteen seats in the area were won by Conservatives, reversing their losses from the previous election. Macdonald lived only a short time after the election and suffered a series of strokes that led to his death on 6 June 1891. In the aftermath of Macdonald's death, the Conservatives went through a series of leaders as they lurched from one political disaster to the next. In spite of repeated promises to carry out Macdonald's last wishes regarding the canal, nothing had been completed by the time another election began to approach. Then there was a flurry of highly visible surveys carried out, and Rogers was asked to complete detailed plans for further construction. On 22 April 1895 a $475,000 contract was signed for a canal between Balsam Lake and Kirkfield. A second followed on 27 August for the first section from Lakefield to Peterborough. The Peterborough
Examiner was not amused, asking, "Why have five years, singularly coincident with the general election, been allowed to elapse between the spurts of activity that mark the survey and construction of portions of the canal? Why ... has it been degraded into a vote-catching machine?" Although the Conservatives attempted to use the Trent to the advantage once again, the attempt failed in
Wilfrid Laurier's strong win in the
1896 election. Having watched the canal hand the Conservatives votes for decades, the new Liberal government immediately cancelled the work. But it was not long before the same political forces that led the Conservatives to support the plan soon found their effect on the Liberals as well, and yet another meeting with the Trent Association and a subsequent visit by George Albert Blair, the newly appointed Minister of Canals and Railways. The Association's trump card was the argument that the canal could be a significant shipping route for grain from western Canada, which at that time was having trouble moving eastward due to insufficient capacity in the railway and waterway systems. But this argument backfired; Blair agreed a canal was needed, but argued instead for a new system along the St. Lawrence. Laurier himself strongly supported railways, especially the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway project. Once again the Association swung into action, bringing over 270 delegates to a meeting on the issue in Ottawa. The Grand Trunk, whose line along the St. Lawrence stood to lose considerable traffic if an alternate shipping route was completed, nevertheless provided train tickets to everyone involved at a reduced fare. The result was a huge crowd of businessmen who descended on Ottawa on 6 April 1897, and began a series of speeches calling for the completion of the Trent. After some time, Laurier himself rose to speak and stated "The government has adopted the completion of the Trent Valley route as part of their policy." This was met by thunderous applause.
Opposition from Toronto By this time the era of the barge canal as a commercial system was over. The formerly hugely profitable
Erie Canal watched traffic dwindle as freight moved to railways, so its operators made it free to use in hopes of maintaining traffic levels and their positive economic effects on the surrounding towns. But this change had little effect, and traffic continued to decline. The chief engineer of
New York, who had control over the canal, stated that "canals as a successful and necessary means of transportation have outlived their usefulness." When a multi-national panel was formed to consider several possible routes to link the upper Great Lakes to the Atlantic, the Trent was not even mentioned. In the case of the Trent, the railways originally intended to service the waterway now provided an even better transport option. The operators of these railways would compete with any commercial traffic on the canal, and this was especially disconcerting for the
grain trade the Trent Association had pitched. The
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), then stopping at
Fort William, were in the midst of completing a link to the Montreal area, as well as building out a network of shorter links in the southern Ontario area that serviced the lake trade. Another railway rush ensued as the Grand Trunk and
Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) bought up similar lines, all with the hopes of gaining some part of the rapidly growing grain trade. At the time, almost all of these routes ran through Toronto. When Laurier made his announcement, the possibility that the Trent would provide any sort of reasonable shipping route in lieu of railways or a canal able to carry oceangoing ships was immediately attacked by business interests in Toronto. When the first $600,000 contract was announced on 31 May 1898,
Edmund Osler, member for
Toronto West and a director of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was the first to oppose it in parliament, stating that the government must have "money to burn." To the great amusement of the Liberals, other Conservatives from the Trent area then began arguing with Osler. Nevertheless, the government agreed to use the funds released in that budget solely for the completion of existing work, as opposed to expansions. It soon became clear that Laurier's government was delaying any further work.
Laurier completes the system Matters changed with the rise of the
Liberal's new leadership under the direction of
Wilfrid Laurier. Prior to the
1896 election the party had strongly supported
free trade with the US, known as "reciprocity", but put this aside for this election and accepted the high-tariff, protectionist
National Policy. To support industry, they proposed a wide variety of public works, especially those that took place in Conservative ridings that were subject to swaying. This was the case for all of the Ontario counties involved in the Trent system, and it became a centrepiece of the Ontario strategy. With their election win, in spite of losing the popular vote, the party began the final completion of the Trent system. At this time, business interests in
Port Hope once again argued for completing the route by making a new canal from the western end of Rice Lake south to their town. This would place the exit closer to Toronto and make the route shorter overall. A January 1900 report noted it would add to the route to Montreal, still the ultimate endpoint for overseas shipping, but much more importantly ships would have to travel in the open across Lake Ontario, whereas the Trenton exit was protected. A follow-up report suggested the Trenton route would be cheaper and contracts were sent out for this section, and while several tenders were received, once again the government declined to begin construction.
Mulock's madness While this work was ongoing, a side-project began that ultimately brought down the Liberals.
William Mulock of
Newmarket, a growing industrial and market town north of Toronto, was Laurier's right-hand-man in the province. In 1904 the
Northern Railway of Canada raised its rates and made several changes that would greatly increase the costs of the industries in the town, so much they claimed it would put them out of business. Mulock hatched a plan to extend the Trent south to the town, an extension officially known as the Holland Subdivision, but universally referred to as the Newmarket Canal. Critics attacked the concept immediately, pointing out that the economic potential of such a link was nonexistent. But the possibility of bringing federal money to his riding in York North was too good to give up, and Mulock campaigned for it continually, presenting petitions on the part of local residents in favour. However, a survey put the price well over $300,000, a significant amount for such a short link, and was then greatly increased due to changes that appear to have been politically motivated on the part of the Department of Railways and Canals. By the time the plans were complete, the price was approaching $1 million. In spite of this price, and that Mulock had left the seat in 1905, the party continued to support the project in order to keep the riding in their hands. It became the subject of continual attacks by the Conservatives in the
House, and when calculations showed there was too little water to keep it running in the summer, it was heaped with scorn in the press. The party continued to support it throughout, even as it became clear the project was doomed. The
1911 election brought a swift end to what was by then known as "Mulock's madness". Within days of taking office,
Robert Borden ordered a review of the project, and cancelled it shortly thereafter. The remains of the construction, estimated to be 85% complete by that time, were abandoned in place and dot the local landscape to this day. The locals now refer to it as the "ghost canal".
Canal today Travel was blocked beyond
Balsam Lake until the opening of the
Kirkfield Lift Lock in 1907. The lock system aided the development of central Ontario, allowing a quick and efficient flow of goods to and from the major trading centres along Lake Ontario. The rugged, rough terrain of this area of the province made travel by land extremely difficult and time-consuming. When the canal was finally completed in 1920, it failed to have a major impact on the economy of the regions it was built to serve. By the time it was completed its design had been made obsolete by larger boats: it had been designed for boats too small to be commercially viable. In the years that it was under construction,
railways had further developed their networks and improved service, which influenced settlement patterns. In 1910–11, the Township of Smith and the Chemong Yacht Club filed a claim for land damages caused by the Trent Canal. The waterway became obsolete for commercial purposes when the present day
Welland Canal was completed in 1932. The Welland Canal could handle ships large enough to sail across the ocean, though cargo was generally transferred to or from larger ocean-going vessels at Montreal. The Trent–Severn system is still in service. It is maintained and operated by the national park service,
Parks Canada, and now is used for
tourism and by recreational boaters. There is a cruise line that operates the ship
Kawartha Voyageur, as well as
houseboat rental firms. In June 2013,
Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for the riding of
Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, reintroduced Bill C-530, the "Trent–Severn Water Authority Act", in order to re-capitalize the century-old infrastructure of the waterway. Technical and navigational details (such as speed limit, maximum draft, maximum water depth and bridge clearances) can be found at Parks Canada's website. File:Scotts Mills.JPG|Trent–Severn Waterway entering
Peterborough at Scotts Mills File:Peterborough Lift Lock, Lock 41 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.jpg|
Peterborough Lift Lock File:Kirkfield lift lock.jpg|
Kirkfield Lift Lock File:Big chute acansino.jpg|
Big Chute Marine Railway File:Trent-Severn Waterway, Lock 25 (Sawer Creek).jpg|alt=A narrow boating channel is in the foreground, past a small tree. In the background is a dam that is creating rapids in the Ontonabee River. The sky is grey, and the picture was taken in mid-April 2019.|Lock 25 - Sawer Creek ==See also==