The “Medieval Period” lasted from the 5th to the late 15th century, and within that time frame the period known as the “Viking Age” spanned from the late 8th to late 11th century. The Vikings were seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden) that explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and to what is now Newfoundland & Labrador. The “discovery” of North America by these hardy Norse explorers was finally substantiated when Norwegian husband-wife team of explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad uncovered a Norse settlement at L’Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Their study of Icelandic sagas—Eirik the Red’s Saga, Saga of the Greenlanders, described how the Norse left Scandinavia and started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after settlements were established. 

The stories, or “sagas” as they are called, describe that in 985AD while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400–700 settlers and 25 ships (14 of which completed the journey) a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course, and after three days’ sailing he spotted a land west of the fleet. Bjarni was only interested in finding the farm of his father, but he described his discovery of this new land to Leif Erikson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later, which puts Europeans in North America in 1000AD.

The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means “land of the flat stones”; Markland, “the land of forests” and Vinland, “the land of wine”, found somewhere south of Markland. It was in Vinland that the settlement described in the sagas was founded, and which is thought to be somewhere in the Atlantic provinces of Canada, although their main settlement, “Hop” has yet to be found.

What was discovered in 1960 was a temporary Norse boat repair encampment at L’Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland. They found some rivets, iron slag chunks, and some bone items, but nothing too indicative of “Viking” swords or amour. During archeological excavation butternuts were unearthed but have never been native to Newfoundland. This means that the inhabitants of this camp ventured further south, likely into New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, but no new evidence has yet been found, nor has any expedition been ignited to find the true Vinland/Hop settlement of these Norse sagas. Norse settlement of what is now Canada would end quickly as they battled indigenous inhabitants and harsh weather, departing our shores only ten years after building a settlement. The “Viking Age” would end one hundred years later around 1100AD. So what are European artifacts from 1250AD, the Medieval Period, doing in the Canadian Museum of History?

Let’s take a closer look.

MEDIEVAL SWORDS AND ARMOUR

Without being able to visit museums in person, I enjoy exploring the various museum artifacts inside the museum online. A casual search turned up some interesting artifacts I’ve never seen before, of which I will share with you below. I think they blow out of the water anything that was ever found in Newfoundland. These revealing artifacts were found on Baffin Island sometime in the last 45 years.

The artifacts are carbon dated to be from around 1250AD and include sword blades, chain mail, oak barrels, wooden boxes, iron and copper, knives, and woven cloth. They are catalogued simply as “Norse” under “origin” but we are told that the Norse left what was North America hundreds of years before that date. One explanation states that the Norse continued to travel to trade with the Inuit inhabitants of Baffin Island at that time. So it seems that it wasn’t Vikings, but medieval Europeans who brought an assortment of items found recently on Baffin Island. Did we have other European visitors prior to Cabot, Cartier and Champlain? Seems so, but their story has yet to be told in greater detail. In the meantime, let’s check out these items from over 700 years ago.

THE ARTIFACTS

1. IRON BLADE: OBJECT NUMBER: SgFm-4:2 MEASUREMENTS: Length 68.4 mm, Width 47.0 mm, Thickness 4.5 mm. Date made: Unknown.

2. PINE SHAFT:

DATE MADE: Circa A.D. 1250-1500

OBJECT NUMBER: PgHb-1:8483 Length 104.4 mm, Width 27.0 mm, Thickness 17.1 mm

3. IRON WEDGE. Circa A.D. 1250

OBJECT NUMBERSfFk-4:2812

Length 67.7 mm, Width 22.2 mm, Thickness 11.9 mm

4. WHALE BONE IRON AWL:

Circa A.D. 1250

OBJECT NUMBER SgFm-4:2239 Length 71.0 mm;:mm, Width 30.4 mm;:mm, Thickness 19.5 mm;:mm

5. CLOTH FRAGMENT: Circa A.D. 1200

OBJECT NUMBER SfFk-4:1234

Water transportation accessory: Mammal wool

MEASUREMENTS Length 135.0 mm, Width 105.0 mm, Thickness 11.5 mm

6. SWORD BLADE: Circa A.D. 1200

OBJECT NUMBER SfFk-4:1184

Armament edged  Length 99.3 mm, Width 37.4 mm, Thickness 6.3 mm

7. IRON RIVET:

Circa A.D. 1200

OBJECT NUMBER SfFk-4:2816

ACTIVITY Shipbuilding

Length 38.7 mm, Width 17.9 mm, Depth 18.4 mm, Thickness 5.1 mm

8. OAK BOX

Circa A.D. 1260

OBJECT NUMBERSgFm-4:351

Length 183.0 mm, Width 110.0 mm, Thickness 14.8 mm

9. OAK BARREL:

Circa A.D. 1260

Length 169.0 mm, Width 52.5 mm, Thickness 20.2 mm, Outside Diameter 210 mm

10. IRON AND BONE KNIFE:

Late 13th Century

OBJECT NUMBER SfFk-4:193 Iron, Muskox horn Length 153.9 mm, Width 19.1 mm, Depth 9.3 mm, Thickness 9.3 mm

11. BRONZE BALANCE:

Circa 14th Century

OBJECT NUMBER SlHq-3:4

Length 146.0 mm, Width 8.0 mm, Thickness 7.2 mm

12. BRONZE BOWL:

Circa A.D. 1250-1500

OBJECT NUMBER: RbJu-1:269 Length 101.7 mm, Width 68.9 mm, Thickness 2.4 mm

13. PINE PLANE

Circa A.D. 1260

OBJECT NUMBER SfFk-4:3502 Length 206.0 mm, Width 52.6 mm, Depth 31.0 mm, Thickness 31.0 mm

14. IRON CHAINMAIL:

A.D. 1260’s

OBJECT NUMBER: SfFk-4:2

body armour, Height 25.6 mm, Length 53.0 mm, Width 36.7 mm, Thickness 25.0 mm

15. PINE FIGURINE:

Circa A.D. 1250-1300

OBJECT NUMBER KeDq-7:325

Length 53.8 mm, Width 18.7 mm, Thickness 9.4 mm

SUMMARY

With the above artifacts representing a definite presence of medieval Europeans on Canadian soil in the 13th century, we have to speculate why they were here, and where exactly they came from. Were they trading with the Inuit for whale bone and other supplies? Did the Norse set up another settlement in North America after leaving 200 years before? The shipbuilding related artifacts suggest they had a presence for sometime, and not just a meet and greet, hello/goodbye visit. Were these 13th century medieval knights on a new crusade to the New World to expand their realm? What other artifacts are out there?

This treasure trove of unique artifacts might just be the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, with other items waiting to be found on Arctic shores, or even further south where they perhaps found their pine and oak wood for these items. Unfortunately, most of these revealing artifacts of a medieval presence in Canada lie in storage and the full story has yet to be told. Maybe someday we will find more pieces to this vast puzzle called history, and soon we will snap together a more detailed story as to what our medieval guests were up to.

Andrew King, January, 2021

SOURCES:

ALL ARTIFACT IMAGES AND INFO FROM: Canadian Museum of History Online Archives: https://www.historymuseum.ca/collections/search-results/?q=norse&per_page=25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings

One of the favourite holiday traditions for many families, mine included, is to watch the classic Rankin and Bass produced “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” stop motion animated special. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC in the United States, and was sponsored by General Electric as part of the The General Electric Fantasy Hour. It is the longest continuously running Christmas TV special.

Rankin and Bass chose Canadian voice actors because radio dramas were still being produced in Canada at the time, which gave producers a large talent pool to choose from. Rankin and Bass were also financially stretched and knew there were lower labour costs in Canada if they used Canadian voice talent.

In 1964, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer had all its voice recording done in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at CBC studios.

Now, Hermie, the elf that wants to be a dentist, was voiced by Paul Soles. He currently lives in Toronto.

And the mean head elf, was voiced by fellow Canadian voice actor, Carl Banas.

But what I didn’t know was that BOTH THESE VOICE ACTORS ALSO DID VOICES FOR THE OLD SPIDER-MAN CARTOON. Paul Soles voiced Spider-Man/Peter Parker & Carl Banas voiced Scorpion!

Now here is where my mind is blown: SPIDER-MAN AND SCORPION YELL AT EACH OTHER IN THE SPIDERMAN CARTOON AND HEAD ELF AND HERMIE ALSO YELL AT EACH OTHER IN RUDOLPH. This mashup and revelation may just be too much for my nostalgic mind to handle. So let’s just switch gears, what ever happened to all those little stop motion puppets from the film? The crew involved with the production had no clue of the future value of the stop-motion puppet figures used in the production, so many were not preserved. It is claimed that Rankin was in possession of an original Rudolph figure.

The remaining nine other puppets—including Santa and young Rudolph—were given to a secretary at the studio, who gave them away to family members. Seven were discarded, leaving only two in existence.

In 2005, those surviving two puppets magically appeared on the Antiques Roadshow episode that aired in 2006 on PBS. At that time, their appraised value was between $8,000 and $10,000. The original puppets had been damaged through years of rough handling by children and storage in an attic. Toy aficionado Kevin Kriess bought Santa and Rudolph in 2005 and in 2007, he had both puppets restored by Screen Novelties a Los Angeles-based collective of film directors specializing in stop-motion animation. 

The figurines were recently sold at auction on November 13, 2020, netting a $368,000 sale price, doubling the expected return.

You could now legitimately say that “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer….You’ll go down in history..”

Andrew King, December 2020

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer_(TV_special)

https://abc7ny.com/7960441/

I am fortunate enough to live in the wonderful village of Manotick, Ontario, a quaint little town with white picket fences and historic homes and buildings lining picturesque streets. What I didn’t know is that there is a dark secret lying within its most recognized jewel…a ghost in the the mill…

Nestled on the west bank of the Rideau River south of Ottawa there lies a stately stone mill surrounded by falling water and thick trees. Built in 1860 by Moss Kent Dickinson and his business partner Joseph Currier, Watson’s Mill is a gorgeously restored old grist mill that harnesses the power of the river to grind wheat into flour, of which it still continues to do today. In addition to the over 150 year old relics that occupy this unique landmark, the spirit of a ghost is said to also lie within its walls, a confined spirit who haunts the mill where a young life came to an untimely end one tragic day in 1861. 

A native of North Troy, Vermont, mill co-owner Joseph Currier’s first wife died in 1858 after all three of their children died within five days of each other three years earlier. After his wife’s death, a saddened Currier traveled to the waters of Lake George, New York and stayed in the Crosbyside Hotel. During his stay at the hotel Currier fell in love with a tall, beautiful young woman by the name of Anne Crosby, the daughter of the family who ran the Crosbyside Hotel. Soon Joseph and Anne were married and honeymooned in the North Eastern United States. An investor and co-owner of brand new grist mill in Manotick, Ontario, Joseph wanted to show his new bride the mill he had built in Manotick and brought his love there to celebrate its first year anniversary that February. 

A cold February night in 1861, Anne wrapped herself in a flowing assortment of clothing as she toured her husband’s new mill. Strolling through the operating machinery, Anne’s white dress suddenly became caught in the revolving turbine equipment, violently throwing her against a nearby support pillar which killed her instantly. 

With his new bride dead on the floor of his mill, a heartbroken Joseph immediately sold his shares in the mill to his partner Dickinson and never set foot in Manotick again.

Anne was buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa and Joseph, picking up the pieces of his shattered life, moved there where he became a member of Ottawa city council and was later elected as a representative for Ottawa in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. Becoming president of the Citizen Printing and Publishing Company which produced the Ottawa Daily Citizen, he was also president of two railway companies in the Ottawa area. 

Yet Anne never seemed to leave the mill. Her spirit was said to remain on the site along with blood stains and fingernail marks on the post where her body struck.  Current visitors are said to feel cold air and goosebumps on the second floor where she perished. 

Joseph soon built another stately stone building in Ottawa in 1868 called “Gorffwysfa” a Welsh word for place of rest, a home he built as a gift to his third wife, Hannah, granddaughter of Philemon Wright.  This stone house is better known as “24 Sussex Drive” and was purchased by the Government of Canada in 1943 to become the official residence of Canada’s Prime Ministers.

Joseph Currier died in 1884 and finally came to rest next to his beloved Anne at Beechwood Cemetery where the two still continue to haunt Ottawa’s special stone buildings in their own respective ways.

Andrew King, October 2020

If you have ever travelled in or out of Ottawa’s McDonald-Cartier International Airport, you’ve probably noticed the distinct aluminum sculpture residing at the airport’s entrance. What you might not have noticed is that these sleek geese have a unique history and that they are quietly moved twice a year…

The Ottawa Airport, or Macdonald–Cartier International Airport was previously called Uplands, or CFB Ottawa South/CFB Uplands. Once a joint-use civilian/military field, it was the busiest airport in Canada by takeoffs and landings, reaching a peak of 307,079 aircraft movements in 1959.

With the increase of civilian jet travel in the 1950s, the Canadian government decided to build a new field south of the original one, with two much longer runways and a new terminal building designed to handle up to 900,000 passengers/year.

This new airport that opened in 1960 was designed by famed Ottawa architect James Strutt, who designed many Ottawa landmarks including the concrete beach huts at Westboro Beach.

Strutt intended to create a ‘cultured atmosphere’ using modernist architecture, Canadian art, and stylish modern furniture. He wanted the new Ottawa airport to be the pinnacle of Canadian art and design and commissioned sculptor Louis Archambault. Archambault would later design sculptures for the Canadian pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, which can be seen today on the lawn of the Museum Of History.

Archambault designed an large and striking metal architectural screen and large stylized “Canada Goose” sculpture called “Shape of Flight“. Situated on either side of the main entrance in reflecting water pools. The Shape of Flight goose sculptures are sleek, abstracted symbols of the iconic Canadian Goose.

Constructed from sharp edged curved aluminum, the goose sculpture remained at Ottawa’s airport terminal until it was renovated in the late 1980/90s when they disappeared until the latest renovation occurred. Re-opened in the early 2000s, Shape Of Flight returned to the main entrance of the airport on the grassy knoll, visible as travellers enter the stunning new terminal.

Now what is most interesting, is that the old 1960 sculpture continues to move, in fact MIGRATE like real geese, each Fall and Spring.

The Airport Authority quietly switches the goose sculptures to face the north in the spring to recreate the Canada Goose migrating back from the south, and in the fall switches the sculptures to face south when the real geese head south for the winter.

This was confirmed on Twitter by the airport, so you are not going crazy if you think you saw them facing one way one month, and the opposite way a few months later.

Andrew King, September, 2020

SOURCES:

Geo Ottawa

Google Maps Streetview

http://urbsite.blogspot.com/2012/12/uplands-airport.html

Click to access Ho-“James-W.-Strutt-and-Louis-Archambault-at-the-Ottawa-Uplands-Air-Terminal”.pdf

Located in a dense forested area at the confluence of the Ottawa and Carp rivers at the foot of Chats Falls, there lies a hidden 400ft diameter wheel aligned with the Summer Solstice. Whether by coincidence or by conscious effort, someone at some point in history has made a remarkable earthen wheel in what has always been a sacred and important place in the Ottawa Valley.

Further investigation into this overgrown “wheel” reveals interesting details that will either prove it to be of a more ancient origin, or perhaps merely a more modern construction that coincidentally aligns its axis with the setting sun on the Summer Solstice.

 

 

In order to learn more about the history of the Summer Solstice and its significance throughout history, we must travel back in time to the early Bronze Age.

HISTORY MYSTERIES

The summer solstice has been significant to almost all cultures, celebrating it as a time of re-birth, and fertility. It is a time of renewal as the sun is at its longest time in the sky. Derived from Latin words, “sol” (sun) and “sistere” (to stand still). Solsistre. Or, as we know it “Solstice”.

A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle. The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of European prehistory.

In our current calendar, June 21st marks the day of the annual Summer Solstice. The Christian Church re-branded this special day celebrated by the ancients through pagan ritual as “St. John the Baptist Day”, which occurs 3 days after the solstice event. This date’s relevance harkens back to the pagan practice of sacrifice that occurred on the Summer Solstice. Stonehenge in the United Kingdom is aligned with the summer solstice and to this day thousands gather there to celebrate the dawn on the solstice. 

Ancient cultures would arrange wood or stones or build earthen mounds in a circular form to coincide with the celestial rotation of the sun. In the Bronze Age, this circle of stones on the landscape would also be illustrated in carved stones with a circle divided into 4 quadrants, denoting the Summer Solstice, the Fall Equinox, The Winter Solstice and then the Spring Equinox. A circle with a cross.

The Egyptians built their Great Pyramids in alignment with the equinoxes and solstices as did many other cultures such as the Maya and even North American native cultures.

In North America, this worship of the sun was done using a built structure called a “medicine wheel”.

 

Medicine wheels are used to mark the geographical directions and astronomical events of the sun, moon, some stars, and some planets in relation to the Earth’s horizon at that location. These rock sites were also used for important ceremonies, teachings, and as sacred places to give thanks to the Creator, Gitchi Manitou or Great Spirit. Other North American indigenous peoples also made these circle petroforms (arrangement of stones).

INVESTIGATION ON THE OTTAWA RIVER

Noticed while examining aerial imagery of the historically significant Chats Falls, it is a place that has been an important confluence for generations of peoples on the Ottawa River. A “wheel shape” that seemed to have a cross, or axis lines within.

Chats Falls has always been a significant area traversed by nomadic tribes of the First Nations for thousands of years to transport goods and copper from Lake Superior east along the Ottawa River, or “Great River” as it was known then. A strategic and cultural area, there is even a native burying ground across from the wheel structure at “Indian Point”.

So it seems likely that there could have been a concerted effort to build a large structure in this area, and with another ancient Solstice Mound on Rice Lake near Peterborough, it would not be out of the ordinary that something similar would be built on the important Ottawa River.

DETAILS

Studying aerial imagery, there is a definite outline of something circular in the forest where the Carp River meets the Ottawa River within Fitzroy Provincial Park. Placing overlays of known “medicine wheels” and “Solar Cross” shapes, they do align with the calculated setting sun axis on the Summer Solstice.

I went to investigate and see this structure in person to examine this anomaly up close and study its details. The area is situated in very dense forest and is in a very swampy, fern covered, low lying area that is likely flooded in the spring. Wet, and damp, there is a definite mounding of earth to create four spokes that converge at a central mound “hub”.

 

Another pronounced mound is noticeable on the western spoke edge. Using Sun Surveyor to calculate the position of the sun on the Summer Solstice, one of the spokes is aligned with the setting sun on the June 20-21st solstice event if you were staying on the central mound. It also matches known First Nations Medicine wheels in orientation, and their inherent quadrants of celestial significance.

Also on the nearby shoreline there looks to be a stone weir, purpose unknown. Was this a native fishing camp and the stone weir was used to catch fish as they used to do centuries ago or another modern park feature?

The whole structure is quite peculiar as there are piles of rocks that have been carefully placed in key positions around the wheel in the middle of this dense forest. I have no idea what else it could be except for some provincial park structure from decades ago that has overgrown since. It is quite inaccessible however, and would be an odd park feature for visitors. There are also some substantial sized trees that are quite old.

CONCLUSION

Whether created by an ancient culture during the Bronze Age, or another time to mark the Summer Solstice and other celestial events, or just a weird Provincial Park feature in the middle of a dense forest made just a few years ago, there is giant 400ft diameter earthen and stone wheel on the shore of the Ottawa River at Chats Falls. Perhaps some readers have knowledge of what it was, or is, maybe it is merely an abandoned park dump or something quite logical. But for now, it seems we can safely call it the MYSTERY OF THE SOLAR WHEEL.

 

Andrew King, June 2020 

 

 

The word “cathartic” traces back to the Greek word “kathairein”, meaning “to cleanse, or purge.” Catharsis became a medical term having to do with purging the body of toxins, and soon people started to also use the word cathartic in reference to an emotional release and a spiritual cleansing.

Just a few kilometres east of Ottawa there once was a place actually called CATHARTIC,  due to the fact that at one time the land there contained a number of ancient bubbling mineral springs that were known to heal and cleanse those who entered them. This place became known as Carlsbad Springs. Ottawa’s own “Fountain Of Youth”, where the wealthy and elite of Ottawa’s upper class ventured in attempts to reverse the aging process and to renew their bodies and mind.

The healing mineral waters of the springs became incredibly famous, and a number of resort hotels and even a CN train station were built around the bubbling baths. Then, as quickly as they were built, the station and hotels were demolished, the once coveted springs soon fading from memory. But do the springs still exist, and if so, where are they? As Ponce de León once searched for the Fountain of Youth, I began to search for our Lost Springs of Carlsbad Springs.

SPRING IS HERE

I always enjoying glancing through old maps, and my curiosity was piqued when I saw a small town outside Ottawa called “Cathartic” in 1879. Knowing what the word meant, but not knowing if that place still exists on current maps, I looked further into where this village may have been located. It turns out that CATHARTIC became what we now call Carlsbad Springs. Upon further investigation it turns out this small area has a most intriguing past.

Situated on a small creek called “Bear Brook” off Russell Road, Cathartic/Carlsbad Springs was located an and old native trail that once linked Ottawa to Montreal. Used for centuries by the indigenous people during their travels through the area, the trail became Russell Road as pioneer settlers took over the land in the 1850s.

The natural springs in the area were noted for their mineral content and qualities, with ancient bedrock waters bubbling up from subterranean aquifers.

Once called Boyd’s Mills, after the first mill owner on the creek, the settlement became known as “Cathartic” in 1870 and the first hotel was built in the vicinity of the springs by the Dominion Springs Company, who touted them for their healing properties.

By 1892 another hotel was built, and soon a train station to allow passengers to visit this new wonder, and what was Ottawa’s largest dance hall, the area’s first bowling alley, and many other recreational activities. Visitors from around the world soon flocked to Cathartic to drink its healing waters and soak in the bubbling baths. The mineral water was soon being bottled and sold throughout North America, and in true capitalist form, the village was rebranded in 1906 as “Carlsbad Springs” after the most fashionable aristocratic resort in Europe. The springs were given names based on the properties of the waters coming from them, such as Soda, Sulphur, Magic, Lithia, and Gas. A special fountain was constructed near the hotel that would be set on fire each night due to the flammable content of the water.

Thousands of Ottawa’s most wealthy residents took the trip to the “Springs” to relax, enjoy the nature trails and amenities of the hotels. This would all soon disappear when the Great Depression and World War 2 hit, sending the resorts and their healing waters down the drain. Even though all the hotels and buildings have since been demolished, the natural springs should still exist, so I thought let’s go find them.

MAPS

An old map of Cathartic from 1879 shows a spring labelled on it next to the Bear Brook, and a small stream leading from it down to the creek. Comparing that to a modern Google Map of Carlsbad Springs, it reveals that nothing much is there now, and the old road has been shifted south, however the area where our fountain of youth was located looks to still be undeveloped.

 

Heading out to Carlsbad Springs and walking along the muddy shoreline of the BearBrook creek to where the spring was supposedly marked on the old map, a trickling sound was soon heard, and following it up the riverbank I came across a spring!

The source of the cathartic waters, and a late 1800s resort town were right there, still bubbling up from the earth, hidden amidst rocks and leaves of the now overgrown landscape. You could see the almost oily nature of the water with a film of some chemical on top of the bubbling water.

The National Capital Commission now owns the land and has graciously restored one of the old Spring House structures, which were built over the springs back in the early resort days. In the summer when the park is open there is a parking lot nearby.

I managed to find the spot where a promotional photo was taken in the 1890s, but it looks unrecognizable. A quick survey of the area revealed more old springs and their own particular properties as mentioned earlier. Some were moss laden, others were rust coloured.

At one spring source there was what looked to be an old glass bottle used in the bottling of the spring water back in the popular resort days.

Nothing much else remains to indicate the once prosperous resort that used to be there. The old bridge area is visible with some interesting artifacts found around it.

Perhaps there lies a cure to the current coronavirus waiting in these forgotten healing springs, from a time when people put their health and faith in mysterious liquids bubbling up from the ground.

 

Andrew King, April 26, 2020

SOURCES:

Google Maps

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_Springs,_Ontario

Carleton Atlas, 1879 Edition

https://www.carlsbadsprings.ca/history/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ottawa, like all cities and communities, is grappling with a pandemic situation, and it reminded me that the Nation’s Capital is no stranger to quickly spreading viruses.  Throughout history the city has dealt with quickly spreading viruses, and the unfortunate plagued souls were placed on an island in the Rideau River. A hidden and rusting iron truss bridge that once carried those virus victims still remains…

The year was 1893 and the smallpox virus was sweeping through the Nation’s Capital so the City Of Ottawa wanted to build an isolated smallpox hospital to keep those infected away from the general population. City Council chose Porter’s Island, an eight-acre, low-lying property in the Rideau River as the quarantine island.

A hastily constructed isolation hospital was built on the island. In order to access the island, a bridge was needed, so this iron truss bridge was built for a cost of $5,000 in 1894. All those diagnosed with the virus were taken to the island across this bridge, which still remains in place today, although shut off from the public.

After the smallpox epidemic of 1893 Porter’s Island was then transformed into a garbage dump. The abandoned and rat infested hospital buildings were demolished in 1904, but another smallpox epidemic hit the city and yet another hospital was erected in 1910. This time it would be in the form of tents.

But the quarantine camp on the island was short lived. The City Of Ottawa in 1913 hired Ottawa architect Francis Sullivan, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous American architect who only had one Canadian student, which was Sullivan. Sullivan designed a very carefully designed new isolation hospital on the island, one of his first in the city. Sullivan would go on to design many notable buildings around Ottawa.

Made of brick and the latest construction techniques, the handsomely designed new isolation hospital remained on the island until it was demolished in 1967.

The island was then developed into Retirement Residences in the late 1960s but the original, old isolation island bridge constructed in 1894 quietly remains. Closed off, and overgrown in summer, this little recognized iron bridge is a reminder of our city’s pandemic past…and as always, history tends to repeat itself. Perhaps the City of Ottawa will expropriate another island for quarantining its citizens once again.

Andrew King, April 19th, 2020

SOURCES:

https://www.ottawamatters.com/remember-this/remember-this-smallpox-and-the-porter-island-isolation-hospital-1826664

http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1341

http://urbsite.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-smallpox-hospital-porters-island.html

Childhood memories are an oasis for the mind in today’s challenging world, recalling nostalgic events or products brings us a brief moment of joy reflecting on those more innocent times. For me, BMX bike rides to the Becker’s convenience store after collecting bottles from the ditch is one of those happy recollections, as $2.00 in bottle deposit refund money was like winning the lottery. That bottle money was quickly put right back into the Becker’s cash register when I bought Wacky Packs, Dinosaur Eggs, Sour Chews and of course, Hostess Potato Chips. 

The 1980’s gave us such great movies, music and junk food. Washing down some fresh foil bagged Hostess chips with Jolt Cola was an integral part of our teenage lives, and for many, Hostess was THE GREATEST potato chip in Canada. As our carefree childhood days slipped away, so did our Munchies, and in what would be a sly corporate takedown, Canada’s beloved Hostess Chips were killed by a well-known American corporation: Pepsi.

BACKGROUND

The epic Canadian story of Hostess Potato Chips stretches back to 1935 when Edward Snyder started making potato chips on his mother’s kitchen stove in Breslau, Ontario, near Kitchener. One Saturday he took a small supply to the Kitchener Market and was sold out by mid-morning. The potatoes were peeled by hand and salted from hand-shaken salt shakers. He wanted Snyder’s Potato Chips to be of the highest quality. He created foil bags in which to package the chips to retain their flavour and crispness. The public demand for Snyder’s Potato chips led Snyder to move a factory which he built on land he purchased that adjoined the Snyder farm. His entrepreneurial spirit and outstanding marketing ability led to his chips being sold across southern Ontario and in the city of Toronto. It wouldn’t be until 1955 that his chips went big when Mr. Snyder sold his Chip Company to E.W. Vanstone, who expanded it greatly  before he then sold it to General Foods four years later.

Hostess Chips were the new brand, and they soon garnered a solid reputation for quality, using foil bags to maintain freshness, and the bags of Hostess chips were easily recognizable using simple colour coding for each flavour. Regular was a blue package, Salt and Vinegar yellow, HOT BBQ in red. These colours for chip flavours were so effective that other brands still continue to use these packaging colours to this day. 

 

Hostess became the #1 potato chip in Canada and fought off US corporations that soon started entering the Canadian chip market. The genius of their marketing once again made waves when Hostess introduced “The Munchies” in 1981.

These were three cartoon chracters that represented the “hunger munchies” one gets for salty snacks. Widely successful, the Munchies became the brand image for Hostess, and were placed on their chip bags, except for Hickory Sticks, that opted for the wood-grain motif on their packaging.

Hostess was so popular, they created giveaways inside their bags of chips, including Rock Music stickers, film tie-ins, and Munchie Merchandise prizes. They were the top potato chip in Canada and the choice of almost every Canadian kid who bought some chips in the 1980s.

This irked the American companies that their brands could not compete with the formidable Hostess brand, leading to a plot to eliminate them, a Munchie Murder. 

CHIP ON THEIR SHOULDER

The 1980s were the Golden Age of many things, including snack foods, and corn based snacks were rising in popularity. Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos all taking the stage. Hostess didn’t have any corn based snacks and decided to enter the market by entering into a partnership with Frito-Lay, who were owned by…..PEPSI.

In 1987 Hostess and Frito-Lay joined forces to introduce a corn based chip snack called Hostess “Taquitos” and they merged in 1988. The Pepsi owned Frito-Lay now started adding their own brands into the Canadian market, which included Ruffles, Cheetos, and Doritos. By 1992 Pepsi then bought out Hostess’ remaining interest from General Foods. This would spell doom and the eventually death of the beloved Canadian Hostess brand. 

PEPSI PUNCHOUT

With Pepsi now owning Hostess, they replaced the Taquitos with their own brand, changing the name to “Zesty Doritos”. Yes, your Zesty Doritos are actually Hostess Taquitos.

With the introduction of other Pepsi owned chip brands such as Ruffles and “upscale brands” of chips such as Miss Vickie’s (another Canadian chip company bought out by Pepsi owned Frito-Lay in 1993) the Hostess brand was effectively destroyed by the very company that purchased it.

Pepsi made the decision to change the name of Hostess to “Lay’s” in 1996, using hockey players as spokespersons to rebrand the image of this new chip.

The Munchies were killed off, Hostess chips were quashed, and Pepsi now only keeps the Hostess name on Hickory Sticks.

THE END?

Now more than ever I think we need to re-visit the things that make us happy and bring them back by any nostalgic means possible. If that means that the American Corporate Pepsi Machine re-introduces the once #1 Canadian brand Hostess Potato Chips for its 85th Anniversary, then let it be so. Because in the end, when you got the munchies, nothing else will do….

Andrew King, March 19th 2020

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostess_Potato_Chips

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Vickie%27s

https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Snyder,_Edward_Groff_(1905-1991

 

The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, a vast network of lakes that ultimately connects to the the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. They have been traversed for centuries by those that inhabited its shores, first using dug out canoes stretching back 12,000 years ago. These ancient water dwellers lived and utilized the Great Lakes not only as a source of food, but as a network of highways for them to trade. Around 1000 AD these ancient mariners traded copper nuggets from Lake Superior which made their way down the Mississippi River into Southern Ohio, and even into Florida.

It would not be until the 17th century that the Great Lakes would see its first large sailing vessel on its waters, this is when the history books tell us a French brigantine or barque called “Le Griffon”, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was built on the Niagara River. It would be labelled as the first known sailing vessel to travel the Great Lakes in the year 1679. However, LeGriffon disappeared on its maiden voyage, having never been found. It is considered the “holy grail” of shipwrecks, being the first of its kind. *Please note I refer to a “ship” as a large boat, not the official maritime three masted definition of the word*

Yet, an obscure letter dated 1673 mentions an even earlier sailing vessel that was part of a fleet of FOUR other vessels built BEFORE LeGriffon at Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, Ontario which would make those boats the earliest known sailing vessels on the Great Lakes. Uncovering old documents and notes from the 1600’s, I believe that LeGriffon was not the first, but actually the FIFTH sailing vessel on the Great Lakes, and as we will learn, the whereabouts of them might be just under our nose.

THE FIRST SHIP

 

In July of 1673 Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, better known as Count Frontenac, the Governor of New France, traveled to a place called “Cataraqui”, where the river that bears that name, and the St. Lawrence River meet at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Now called Kingston, it is a strategic location since it is at the confluence of these three waterways where the fur trade could be easily monitored and controlled. Under the advisement of explorer and fur trader René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, this spot was chosen to build a French fort to control the lucrative fur trade in the Great Lakes Basin to the west. La Salle was left in command of the fort in 1673, where he immediately built a wooden fort and a harbour to contain a future fleet of sailing vessels which could control the expansive waters of the Great Lakes.

It was here, in this Kingston harbour, that it seems the very first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes was constructed and launched. I found this in my research of a document titled “Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre” dated November 13th, 1673, in which Frontenac himself mentions:

“…with the aid of a vessel now building, will command Lake Ontario, keep peace with the Iroquois, and cut off the trade with the English,”

The letter then continues to state that with “another vessel on Lake Erie, we, the French, can command all the Upper Lakes.”

 

So it would seem that this large sailing vessel mentioned by Frontenac under construction at Fort Frontenac in 1673 pre-dates LeGriffon by six years. Not only that, but another document from 1677 states that:

“Four vessels, of from twenty five to forty tons, had been built for the lake and the river,”

So it seems that LaSalle was busy at his fort’s harbour and built not just 1, but 4 ships in 1677 to command the waters of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. It would be two of these ships that would carry the supplies needed to built the famous “LeGriffon” on the Niagara River, and it is these first ships we will now look try and locate.

FRONTENAC

The first of these ships built in 1673 by LaSalle at Fort Frontenac was constructed at what is now the intersection of Ontario Street and Barrack Street. This would have been the very first sailing vessel built and launched on the Great Lakes, if you don’t believe that Vikings had already ventured down the St. Lawrence and sailed here 600 years earlier. The rapids at LaChine in Montreal had prevented any large sailing vessels to pass south into Lake Ontario, so new ships would have to be built at Fort Frontenac if they wanted to sail the Great Lakes.

This first boat constructed is said to have been called “Frontenac” after the Governor of New France, and was a sloop type vessel of about 10 tonnes, with a single mast. It would be this vessel that would carry two men, LaMotte and Hennepin to Niagara where they would establish a construction site to build LeGriffon.

UNKNOWN SHIP

Of the four sailing vessels that were recorded as being harboured at Fort Frontenac in 1677, one was the sloop Frontenac, with another being recorded as a bigger vessel of about 40 tonnes, likely a ketch, that was used as a supply ship to carry the hardware and equipment needed to build another, bigger ship on the Niagara River. This earlier vessel would carry LaSalle and his companion Tonti (who was deeded Amherst Island, named after him before it was called Amherst Island, Isle Tonti) from Fort Frontenac to Niagara a few weeks after the first, smaller vessel had left Fort Frontenac.

THE VOYAGES

So now we have two large sailing vessels, both built at Fort Frontenac, embarking on a sailing adventure to build another ship at Niagara. But what actually happened to these first ships? LeGriffon gets all the attention, but it was these first ships that were actually the first to sail on the great Lakes, a full six years prior to LeGriffon.

It would be a cold November day in 1678 when LaSalle sent his comrades LaMotte and Hennepin aboard Frontenac to find a suitable spot to build and launch LeGriffon above Niagara Falls. Setting out on November 18th, 1678, the sloop encountered high winds whipping across Lake Ontario so the crew hugged to the north shore of the lake, stopping in many of its bays for refuge making their way west, likely stopping off in Prince Edward County, Port Hope, and other places until they finally reached the native village of Taiaiagnon on November 26th, which was located at the mouth of the Humber River near present day Mississauga, ON. Here they sought refuge from the cold and were welcomed by the natives, but their boat, Frontenac, was soon locked in ice in the freezing waters. Using axes and knives, they finally chipped out their vessel from this icy grasp, and sailed on across the lake to the mouth of the Niagara River on December 6th. Once there, they dragged Frontenac on shore to protect it from the lake ice, and trudged on to find a spot to build the new larger ship, LeGriffon.

LaSALLE’S SHIP

A month later, on Christmas Eve of 1678, LaSalle and his pal Tonti boarded their bigger sailing vessel of an unknown name at Fort Frontenac filled with anchors, cannons, cords, sails, hardware and other supplies needed to build LeGriffon at Niagara. Leaving Fort Frontenac’s harbour (which was filled in with landfill and now has condos on it) they sailed west to join LaMotte and Hennepin, however, the winds were fierce and they were almost bashed apart somewhere off Prince Edward County, likely around Point Traverse where there are many treacherous rocky shoals.

On Christmas Day, LaSalle and his team aboard their large, unnamed ketch crossed Lake Ontario to arrive at what is now Rochester, NY. They sailed along the southern coast of Lake Ontario where they stopped at a Seneca village. Here LaSalle and his comrades decided to carry on by foot to meet LaMotte at Niagara. Their vessel was left in charge of its pilot and crew, but they did not secure it well enough and on January 8th a wind carried away the supply laden boat 15km west, along the shoreline, where it broke apart near Thirty Mile Point, spewing its precious cargo on the lake floor. A messenger was sent to tell LaSalle his ship had been wrecked, sending him back to try and salvage what was left.

He and his men managed to salvage the anchors, chain, and some materials important for outfitting Le Griffon, but most of the supplies and provisions were lost, and remain there to this day. This would make LaSalle’s ship the first shipwreck in the Great Lakes, before the loss of LeGriffon in 1679.

LaSalle and his men dragged what they could salvage from his wrecked ship 50km overland on foot to the Niagara construction site, which is now Griffon Park in Niagara Falls. After laying LeGriffon’s keel on January 26th, 1679, and driving the first bolt into it, LaSalle left the operation in charge of his comrade, Tonti. LaSalle departed on foot heading back to Fort Frontenac, arriving almost starved to death after an arduous and cold journey of almost 400kms.

Tonti, LaMotte, Hennepin and their team would later re-float the first vessel, Frontenac, to try and salvage more equipment from LaSalle’s wrecked boat, but the winter ice prevented any further success. That first smaller boat would later go back to Fort Frontenac to retrieve more supplies for building LeGriffon, and return to Niagara once again, but what happened to what was the first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes remains a mystery.

LaSalle’s men continued to build LeGriffon throughout the winter months of 1679, but were met with cold temperatures, disgruntled workers, hostile natives, and the constant threat of sabotage. Tonti made sure to launch ahead of schedule and get out of there as quickly as possible, with LeGriffon hitting the water with great ceremony in early summer of 1679. It would be the largest sailing vessel on the Great Lakes when launched, but not the first as some will have us believe.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Tonti towed LeGriffon through the turbulent waters of the Niagara River to Lake Erie, before LaSalle climbed aboard, unfurled its sails and steered into the lake on August 7th, 1679. Outfitted with seven cannons, two of which were brass, LeGriffon now sailed the unchartered Great Lakes with LaSalle and headed for Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he got off the vessel to explore the head of Lake Michigan with some four canoes.

La Salle ordered LeGriffon to off-load merchandise for him at Mackinac Island, and then on September 18th, the pilot and crew of 5 left either Rock island or Washington Island for their Niagara River starting point with a cargo hold full of valuable furs.

LeGriffon was never seen again and disappeared into the Great Lakes somewhere between Green Bay and Niagara Falls, its final whereabouts being one of the greatest maritime mysteries of all time.

Some say the crew took the furs and burned the ship, others say it went down in a storm. No one knows for sure what happened or where LeGriffon lies, but it continues to intrigue shipwreck hunters from across the world.

Being a special wreck to find, little attention has been paid to where the first vessel was lost off 30 Mile Point. That vessel would in fact be the Great Lakes first shipwreck, and yes, it would be great to find LeGriffon, but wouldn’t it be more interesting to find LaSalle’s first ship, built 6 years earlier, with its supplies to build LeGriffon still lying somewhere on the lake floor?

At least we know the general vicinity where that wreck may lie. It awaits discovery after 342 years, and there might not be much left, but at least we now know where the Great Lakes first shipwreck may be hiding.

Andrew King
February 2020

Sources

https://books.google.ca/books?id=wnNKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=Lettre+de+frontenac+au+Ministre+1673&source=bl&ots=W-ubBKpmf1&sig=ACfU3U0amIWV6Q2uqeVnJy8xTWooaPjgaQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq8I–iPXnAhXNlHIEHU_ODMQQ6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Lettre%20de%20frontenac%20au%20Ministre%201673&f=false

Google Maps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Griffon

 

Three hundred and sixty years ago, a vicious battle took place on the Ottawa River, a battle so epic that both history and folklore intertwined to create an enduring legend. It was a significant skirmish called “The Battle of Long Sault” which took place in this country’s formative years in 1660, and it occurred halfway between Ottawa and Montreal on the shores of the Ottawa River. It was a brutal battle that would later mold a Quebec folk hero by the name of ADAM DOLLARD.

Yet the exact location of where this historic battle took place has never been determined. Recent research into the matter has uncovered compelling evidence of a quietly shelved archeological dig that took place in the 1950s indicating that the famous battle did not take place in Quebec but rather in Ontario.

BACKGROUND

One of Canadian history’s most glorified battles, The Battle Of Long Sault has been heavily engrained into Quebec cultural history, its central hero being Adam Dollard des Ormeaux. Finely crafted into a heroic figure of French-Canadian culture, he represents idyllic French Canadian nationalism and staunch Catholicism. Yet, some research brings up  key evidence that may reveal his tragic story ended in Ontario and not in Quebec as the textbooks would have us believe.

The May 24th weekend, or Victoria Day for the rest of Canada, is a bit different in Quebec where it is unofficially known as “Fête de Dollard”, in recognition of this character he will soon discuss. In 2003, provincial legislation officially declared the date to be National Patriots’ Day. A central figure of this Quebec patriotism is a young man named Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, a 25-year-old commander of Montreal’s (then called Ville-Marie) garrison. In April of 1660, Dollard requested permission from Governor Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve to take an expedition up the Ottawa River towards present day Ottawa to attack a war party of Iroquois before they could reach Ville-Marie and its few hundred inhabitants. Dollard believed that many Iroquois warriors who were encamped along the Ottawa River were preparing to destroy the French settlements at Ville-Marie, Quebec City and Trois-Rivières.

Dollard said he could surprise and ambush the Iroquois warriors before they could begin their campaign against New France. After assembling a force of sixteen volunteer riflemen and four Algonquin warriors, including Chief Mituvemeg, the expedition left Montreal in late April of 1660 with several canoes, filled with food, ammunition and weapons.

Fighting the strong current of the Ottawa River, Dollard and his men finally reached their destination in early May, an area thought to be a good place for an ambush of the approaching Iroquois coming downriver from present day Ottawa. At the site he chose there was already an abandoned Algonquin fort built along the river made up of trees planted in a circle, cut down to trunks. Forty Hurons, under Chief Etienne Annahotaha came to this position to assist Dollard with his ambush plans. Dollard wanted to create a strong fortress from which to launch his attack, so he and his men reinforced the old fortification by building a new wooden palisade around the wall of existing tree trunks, but the Iroquois soon arrived before his new fortress could be completed.

 

The Iroquois approaching from the west came down the Ottawa River and quickly arrived at Dollard’s position, and in reaction Dollard engaged the Iroquois with musket fire. The result was an immediate assault made upon the fort by the Iroquois, but it was repulsed by the Frenchmen inside. The retreating Iroquois took the French canoes they had left on the beach, broke them up and set them on fire, using the burning wreckage to set ablaze Dollard’s new wooden stronghold. The French and their Huron allies were able to resist the attack and in doing so, killed a chief of the Seneca.

In what was a horrific and brutal scene, the French took the corpse of the Seneca chief and placed his head on a sharpened pole of the palisade as a grim warning to the remaining Iroquois. However, the infuriated Iroquois responded by calling in 500 more warriors to the scene. The Hurons loyal to Dollard, now witnessing the huge army of Iroquois in front of them, decided to defect over to the other side, except for the Huron chief, who loyally remained with Dollard.

The Iroquois wanted revenge and got busy building wooden shields called “mantelets” that were able to repel the firing French musket balls. After a week of back and forth harassment, the final battle began, and now armed with their shields, knives and axes, the Iroquois chopped through the fort’s walls and started pouring into Dollard’s wooden stronghold.

 

Sensing imminent defeat, Dollard then ignited a keg of gunpowder inside the walls of his fort and prepared to hurl it down on the Iroquois attackers, but when the bomb left his hands, it struck the palisade wall, bounced back and exploded in his own fort. With the overwhelming Iroquois forces now inside his walls, Dollard and the defenders were quickly killed in a gruesome skirmish that left only 4 Frenchmen alive, three of them quickly burned alive within the fort, and a fourth being taken prisoner, later tortured and killed. Fearing more intense battle bloodshed ahead, the Iroquois decided to pull back their planned attack and retreated west to Ottawa, deciding it wise not to unleash more havoc in Ville-Marie where the French likely had more muskets and cannons.

Dollard was defeated and the Iroquois achieved their revenge, but the history books say that the young Frenchman managed to scare off the attacking Iroquois, saving Ville-Marie and the rest of New France from imminent bloodshed.

A HERO IS BORN

Native survivors of the epic battle on the Ottawa River then recounted the tale back in Ville-Marie (Montreal). The courageous tale of Dollard des Ormeaux and his men was then recounted to Catholic nuns who decided Dollard should became a heroic figure in New France, a hero who exemplified selfless personal sacrifice, a martyr for the church, and the colony.

In the 1800s The Catholic Church had become an influential representative of French Canadian interests within Canada, and to create an ideal moral and cultural hero, the Catholic church wrote their version of history with an emphasis on Christian heroes, which included the story of Dollard.

So it comes as no surprise that in 1919 a small town in Quebec called Carillon was chosen as the spot to dedicate a massive memorial to Dollard on what was decided to be the battleground site and Dollard’s final resting place. However, the location was picked purely at random because it fit a certain narrative and was thought to be in the general vicinity of where this historic battle occurred. Good enough. No evidence was ever found of the battle ever taking place at that location, but it was symbolic a place as any to celebrate Dollard’s heroism, so the memorial was built. However, it seems evidence was eventually found, but it placed Dollard and his fort in Ontario…

THE FORT IS IN ONTARIO

After piquing my interest in learning where this historic fort might be located, I came across a journal article published in 1960, entitled “The Lost Battleground Of Long Sault” by National Museum of Canada archeologist Thomas E. Lee, who weirdly published his report through the University of Rome. Reading the report, it clearly outlines an extensive archeological dig done by Lee in the 1950s that indeed uncovered a burnt out palisaded fort…BUT, it was on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River. However, all this new historic evidence was soon conveniently submerged underwater, flooded out when the nearby Carillon Dam was built in 1959.

The Carillon Generating Station uses a large dam, which raised the Ottawa River water levels by over 62 feet (19 m) at Carillon and flooded out the rapids of Long-Sault, submerging all evidence of Lee’s archeological find of Dollard’s fort in Ontario.

After 60 years of being quietly hidden underwater, I will tell you exactly where I think we can find the Lost Fort.

As with many important historic finds, a regular citizen can be attributed to finding this Lost Battleground, and her name was Miss Anne Dewar from Ottawa who had grown up near St. Andrews and had heard stories of an old French fort being on the farm property of a Mr. Ross. The farm, located just below the Little Rideau River and 8 kilometres east of the town of Hawkesbury, was apparently the site of Dollard’s Last Stand.. Dewar approached the museum with her thoughts and persuaded the curator at the time, a Mr. Alcock to join her along with some local French fisherman who also knew of the actual battle site.

Below: Rare photos of the Lee excavation in Ontario of the fort. 

Thomas Lee was then given the go ahead to begin an archeological survey of the site where earthen mounds and rings of earth would reveal a definite fortlike structure. I was able to track down Lee’s photographs of the site before it was submerged underwater for the dam construction, and the evidence Lee uncovered certainly does substantiates Dewar’s claim. Lee of course was met by opposition in the academic quarters who made it clear that Dollard was French hero, who died in Quebec.Yet many older generations in the area adamantly proclaimed the fort was indeed located on the Ross Farm on the Ontario side. Lee also mentions that local indigenous members traveling up and down the Ottawa River often spoke of the old battle at the Ross Farm, as did inhabitants on the Quebec side of the river.

THE LOCATION

Lee began his excavations in 1951 and unearthed the remains of a palisaded structure, which matched the description of the fort where Dollard, his men and countless native warriors perished almost four centuries ago. The fort would have been a rectangular, round-sided palisade, hastily constructed by Dollard, so not a huge size, but big enough to accommodate his men and supplies. Lee’s excavations uncovered quite a remarkable collection of archeological remains, so it was photographed and recorded, but it would soon be submerged under the rising waters of the river when the Carillon Dam was constructed, concealing once and for all the true location of this historic battle.

Cross referencing historic maps of the area to locate where “The Ross Farm” was located, and using the fact it was said to be 8km east of Hawkesbury, I was able to pinpoint the area where the fort would have been located. Then studying the photographs by Lee, it looks like the fort was constructed quite close to the water’s edge pre-flooding. Since the Ottawa River water levels rose significantly after the dam’s construction, the site is now likely under about 15 feet of water.

RECONSTRUCTION

Referencing Lee’s notes and the historic accounts of the battle, I sketched how a 17th century wooden palisaded fort may have looked like and then positioned it at the location of where I determined the site to possibly be. It seems to be located about 50 feet off the shoreline of private property, and if that property owner is willing, it might be worth doing some investigation on their property to see if metal detectors could unearth any evidence of the battle in the form of musket balls, arrowheads, knife blades, and any other remaining 17th century artifacts that could have survived. To my knowledge, no further archeological excavations have been conducted, and the site and its secrets remain submerged.

CONCLUSION

I firmly believe that Thomas Lee did in fact uncover the actual site and fort ruins of the Battle Of Long Sault, but whether it is because of old fashioned politics or a lack of funding, interest, or all of the above, the proof needed to confirm this historical event’s location continues to be concealed beneath the waves of the mighty Ottawa River.

Andrew King, February 2020

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Long_Sault

https://www.jstor.org/stable/29787448?seq=1

Google Maps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Lee

https://wiki2.org/en/Adam_Dollard_des_Ormeaux#cite_note-lee-5