Approximately an hour and a half drive west of Ottawa will take you to the popular summer village of Westport, a quaint town nestled at the foot of Foley Mountain. Perhaps it was this mountain, or the fact it has always been a bustling summer tourist hub, that made it the place where Mountain Dew soda arrived in Canada with much fanfare in the year 1964.

Mountain Dew, a refreshing citrus drink that was originally formulated in the 1940s as a personal whisky mixer, hit American shelves in the 1950s but would not reach the Canadian market until 1964. “Mountain Dew” was the nickname for good ole Tennessee Moonshine, a name used by Barney and Ally Hartman, two brothers that bottled their own whisky mixer as they had trouble finding a suitable one they liked at the time. The Hartman brothers were traveling on a train and offered a fellow passenger a sample of their “Mountain Dew” mix who happened to be Charles Gordon, a soft drink promoter of “Dr. Enuf” brand elixir.

The Hartman brothers and Gordon then worked out a deal with the Tri-Cities Beverage Corporation to bottle and sell Mountain Dew in 1950. Sold regionally around Knoxville, Tennessee it wouldn’t be until 1961 that Mountain Dew was formally launched to a greater market when Tri-Cities was merged into the Tip Corporation. Then things really started to take off for Mountain Dew when Tip was purchased by Pepsi Cola, bringing it into their national and international distribution scope.

Under Pepsi, Mountain Dew was marketed as a “Hillbilly” drink and branded the bottles with a design and the motto “It’ll tickle you inards!”

It was in that year that Pepsi took over the Mountain Dew brand that it arrived in Canadian stores, and according to the Rideau District Museum, there was a free meal and Mountain Dew sample promotion at the local Westport department/grocery store called “Genge’s”…(now The Village Green) These wonderfully rich and pure photos capture that moment in time when Mountain Dew arrived…

People lined up down the street to get a taste of the exciting new soft drink that summer in 1964, it is unclear if this was the first time in Canada launch that was in Westport, or if it was a coordinated launch across the country, but an amazing photo collection exists of the Westport Mountain Dew launch.

Despite the similar appearance and taste to the American version, the Canadian version of Mountain Dew did not contain any caffeine due to regulations that restricted caffeine to only be used in dark-coloured soft drinks. These regulations imposed by Health Canada, meant that Mountain Dew being a non-dark citrus flavoured soda, could not contain any caffeine. That regulation was dropped in 2012 and now Canadian Mountain Dew contains caffeine.

The HillBilly motif of the 1964 Mountain Dew only lasted 5 years when the logo was re-designed to appeal to a younger, more hip generation, a classic logo and font design that lasted until 1996.

Whether or not Westport, Ontario was the official Canadian launch spot for Mountain Dew beneath Foley Mountain, the incredible collection of photos from the “Wing Collection” of the Rideau District Museum captures the excitement of that moment in time and offers a glimpse through the looking glass to hot, summer days of the past when ice cold drinks in glass bottles were the best thing to quench your thirst. And still are.

Andrew King, July 2025

SOURCES:

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

https://www.southernthing.com/mountain-dew-history-2646712730.html

I would like to personally thank the Rideau District Museum for their kind allowance of using the photos from their Wing Collection capturing “Mountain Dew Day” in Westport, Ontario in 1964. Link to their website below:

https://villageofwestport.ca/rideau-district-museum/

Travelling between Ottawa and Kingston today takes about 2 hours by car on either Highway 15 or the 416/401 route. A driver can have breakfast in Ottawa, throw on their favourite driving tunes and arrive in Kingston before lunch. This journey was not always so simple, in fact it would take days by steamship along the Rideau Canal route, the only option other than horseback before railways were in service. 

Travelling between Kingston and Bytown (Ottawa’s Pre-1855 name) was a luxurious and refined affair aboard one of the many steamships. They were outfitted with the finest dining rooms, overnight accommodations and a dedicated crew to make your journey on the Rideau Canal an enjoyable one. 

The first steamship on the Rideau Canal was the “PUMPER” and it left Kingston at 4pm on May 22nd, 1832. PUMPER was re-named “RIDEAU” for the special inaugural journey after the canal’s completion with Lieut.-Col. John By aboard, Royal Engineers, his wife and two daughters, and other dignitaries of the time. PUMPER left Kingston and reached the head of the locks at Bytown a week later on May 29th, 1832. 

Thus began the 130-year history of the Rideau Canal as a commercial waterway, and the use of luxury steamships to complete the journey. All those magnificent ships have been lost in time, once the backbone linking the two cities and the communities in between. What happened to them and where are they now?….

This is the Search for the Lost Steamships Of The Rideau Canal…

THE SHIPS

During the 130 years of steamship transit on the Rideau Canal, many steamers plied its waters, but for the focus of this investigation, I will be searching for the THREE most prominent and luxurious steamships; The Rideau Belle, The Rideau King, and The Rideau Queen. With such an amazing history between these beloved ships, it seems a shame not a trace of any of them can be found. Let’s see what we can discover…

THE RIDEAU BELLE

The first of the luxury steamships on the Rideau Canal was the “RIDEAU BELLE”. Built in Kingston by Robert Davis in 1885 with a single watertight deck, the 69-foot long, 15ft. beam ship was launched to carry 40 passengers. Powered by a 20 horsepower engine, Rideau Belle was to be the newest and most splendid of Victorian steamships to ply the Rideau Canal route, so much so that only after a year of service her hull was extended in length to 85ft with a new 40horsepower engine, and subsequently could now carry up to 100 passengers. The journey was a duration of 38 hours each way, in unparalleled Victorian luxury.

The interior of the Rideau Belle saw the finest cherrywood panelling adorn the dining room, velvet curtains with satin sofa lounges throughout. The luxurious Rideau Belle would sadly not operate for more than ten years when she met her fate one cold November day in 1895.

According to an article I found in the Ottawa Journal from March 12, 1895, on Page 7, it states the “THE RIDEAU BELLE BURNS”…Anchored for over-wintering in a bay of Sand Lake on the Rideau system, a fire somehow broke out and burned her hull to the waterline. The Rideau Belle met her final fate on Sand Lake and it seems her service was over, but where did she sink on Sand Lake?

FATE of RIDEAU BELLE

The 1895 article states that the luxury steamship was undergoing repairs in “West Bay” when the fire broke out, and the nearby lockmaster from Davis Lock noticed her burning. After her charred remains were left to smoulder, local legend states that the Lockmaster from Chaffey’s scavenged some of the fine cherrywood from the dining room to build his own luxury outhouse! (torn down in the 1930s)

So where is West Bay on Sand Lake and did Rideau Belle slip beneath the waves there or did remnants of her hull get dragged elsewhere?

A search of the nautical chart of Sand Lake and West Bay does not show any indication of a “wreck” or unusually shallow shoals that could mark the remains of Rideau Belle. Perhaps it drifted into the swampy bay of the inlet and slowly sank into the muck of the bay bottom. Perhaps a local resident from the area knows what happened to the remnants of Rideau Belle, and if it is still there waiting to be discovered after 130 years of abandonment.

THE RIDEAU KING / JAMES SWIFT

Two years prior to the demise of Rideau Belle, construction began in 1893 on what was to be the epitome of luxury steamship travel on the Rideau Canal: the “James Swift” . The 1890’s were a romantic period in Canadian history, and the steamship came to symbolize the leisurely and elegant way of life on the rivers and lakes of Canada. Captain Noonan wanted to ensure that his new Rideau Canal steamer would boast an opulent refinement never before experienced on the Rideau.

Built in Kingston by Matthew Davis with a length of 107 feet and a beam of 23ft., James Swift was one of the first ships to have electric lighting and a steam heating system. First licensed to carry 100 passengers, the ship also had conveniences such as hot and cold running water and made the journey from Kingston to Ottawa in about 27 hours.

With James Swift offering music and dancing at night under the moonlight as she steamed along the Rideau, she became such a popular means of travel that within only two years the ship was renovated and passenger capacity increased to 150. “Swift” made such an impression with her striking appearance and elegance that crowds of gawkers would rush to the local lockstations to take in her presence and local newspapers created headlines about the visiting steamship.

Captain Noonan and his ship James Swift was so popular that he incorporated the newly formed Rideau Lakes Navigation Company (RLNCo), and became the managing director and principal shareholder. However, it would only be 8 years later that the James Swift would almost meet the same fate as its predecessor in a tragic fire. While at dock in Ottawa in 1901, fire broke out on the James Swift, partially destroying her and killing an Ottawa fireman who gave his life trying to extinguish the fire. Robert Ireland was killed and three others were seriously burned.

Fortunately for Captain Noonan, the hull and portions of the deck remained intact and even though the fire began in the boiler room, the Swift’s working machinery was not seriously damaged, and the damages of $2,000 was “fully covered by marine insurance”. The burnt hulk was thus rebuilt and substantially upgraded and launched again in 1902 as the “Rideau King”.

Starting services on May 1st, 1902 as the Rideau King, Capatian Noonan’s newly restored steamship offered round trip service from Kingston to Ottawa for $5.00 ($3.00 one way) with meals and berths extra, leaving Kinsgton at 1pm and arriving in Ottawa at 3:45pm the next day.

Tragedy would strike yet again in 1909 when the ship lost control and ran aground on Newboro Lake on Whitehall Island, causing $1,000 in hull damage. It was around this time that the end of the steamship popularity was becoming evident. With the popularity of the personal motorboat on the Rideau system, and the network of railways now in operation between major cities and towns, the steamship era was drawing to a close.

FATE OF THE RIDEAU KING

By 1912 steamship travel on the Rideau was on a serious decline and with the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914 the end of the opulence was at hand. With few passengers and a tired engine, Rideau King was still in service in 1916, but had to be removed from its duty halfway into the season on the Rideau as the ship was deemed “unsafe” since it had become “structurally unsound” with the boiler and engine requiring complete replacement. With the cost of repairs unjustified without passengers to pay for them, Rideau King ended her days being sold for scrap in 1917. After being partially dismantled for its parts, the Royalty of the Rideau, Rideau King was sunk in a lagoon off Garden Island across from Kingston, On.

Local legend states that her hull is still visible in the shallow water on a calm day, but Garden Island is somewhat of a “scrapyard of the sea” with many old ships being sunk off the island’s shores. Which of these sunken hulls is that of Rideau King?

A Google Maps satellite image of Garden Island shows many wrecks visible under the water’s surface, so without proper diving verification of hull lengths, construction details etc. it would be hard to discern which of the wrecks visible is that of the once illustrious Rideau King. (*Please let me know if you have any further info on which wreck could be it!)

THE RIDEAU QUEEN

During the success of Captain Noonan’s Rideau Navigation Company at the turn of the century, he and his company was doing so well with the steamship service on the Rideau Canal that he commissioned the construction of another steamship in addition to his Rideau King...The Rideau Queen.

Also built by Robert Davis in Kingston, the Rideau Queen entered service in 1900 at a length of 108ft. and a breadth of 24ft. The most luxurious of all the Rideau steamships the Queen was ready for 300 passenger service in June of 1900, boasting accommodations rivalling any hotel of the time.

Ads in newspapers would boast that the latest Rideau steamship had “steam heat, electric lighting, electric fans, and cabins priced from $1.00 to $5.00, with meals at 50cents, and “lavish marble wash basins”.

Thousands of passengers boarded the Rideau Queen, with many amplifying local economies along the Rideau Canal route it took, with many towns benefiting from its stops along the way between Ottawa and Kingston.

Word spread to America of the Queen’s journey, with many American tourists taking the train from New York City to Ogdensburg or Clayton, New York and across the St. Lawrence River for service to Ottawa along the picturesque Rideau Canal.

However, all good things must come to an end, and in 1912 steamship travel began its death spiral, and in 1914 there was a transition from happy recreational activities like boating to the war effort of World War 1 that brought an end to such luxurious folly.

On top of the Great War destroying business, Captain Noonan died in 1914, and with it his glorious steamship business. Like the fate of Rideau King before it, Rideau Queen was sold off to new owners, the Trent Navigation Company in 1916 where she plied the waters of the Bay of Quinte doing contract work. Then in 1922 Rideau Queen was sold to a Mr. C. Leboeuf and Mr. Gobout of Valleyfield, Quebec. In 1924 she was sold to the Valleyfield Transportation Company to be used as a cargo vessel on the St. Lawrence River.

With an illustrious past as a luxury steamship on the Rideau Canal, Rideau Queen sadly saw her last days on the water as a cargo barge before being hauled ashore and demolished somewhere in 1933…location unknown.

FATE OF RIDEAU QUEEN

With the whereabouts of the Rideau Queen not known with any exact certainty, one could speculate that the Queen was laid up somewhere near her last area of service, which was Valleyfield, Quebec. I am not familiar enough with Valleyfield to know where the ships would have been at port, or dismantled, so if anyone knows anything about the Rideau Queen being in Valleyfield, Quebec, please let me know!

CONCLUSION

It seems rather sad that the era of luxury steamship travel on the Rideau system only lasted 20 years, from 1895 to 1915, the glory years of a lavish steamer experience likely never again to be replicated. With their opulent accommodations and slower pace style, these three steamships represent a lost method of traveling between Kingston and Ottawa that was both unique and impressive.

The three main steamships are now lost in time, relics of a forgotten era in steamship transportation that now has no physical connection. Perhaps one day the remains of them will be found, the Rideau Belle somewhere in a bay of Sand Lake, The Rideau King somewhere off Garden Island and the Rideau Queen in pieces somewhere near Valleyfield, Quebec.

Until that time we can only imagine how that journey must have been like under plumes of smoke above your head and wooden hulls gently slicing the waters of the Rideau Canal System over a century ago.

Andrew King, April, 2025

SOURCES

“Steamboating on the Rideau Canal” by Mike Nelles,
Bytown Pamphlet Series No. 71, 2007
http://parkscanadahistory.com/publications/rideau/steamboating.pdf

“Commercial Navigation on the Rideau Canal 1832-1961”, by Edward Forbes Bush, 1981

https://www.thewhig.com/opinion/columnists/local-history-luxurious-steamboats-cruised-rideau-canal

Google Maps

Newspapers.com

Situated on the Ottawa River approximately 18 kilometres northwest of downtown Ottawa lies a small island with such a haunting past it truly should be called, the Island Of The Dead.

What lies beneath the sands of this small, one acre island is a solemn reminder of our area’s turbulent ancient past, and reminds us of those that were here long before us. Dozens of buried skeletons, weapons and a mysterious inscribed stone tell a story of violence, ritual and what I believe is a place of extreme archeological importance.

This seemingly innocuous sand island one kilometre offshore is often visited, but rarely those that step foot upon its shore fully comprehend what lurks below.

LIGHT THE WAY

Our story begins with my recent research into the history of the Ottawa River, a history that I’ve recounted before through articles written about centuries old ruins, forgotten French forts, trading posts, shipwrecks and other incredible historical evidence that the Ottawa River was once an important conduit of goods and people. It was when I was researching the old lighthouses of the Ottawa River that I came across a most intriguing document from 1899 called the “Ottawa Field Naturalist” with an article within its pages entitled “Archeology of Lac Deschenes” by a T.W. Edwin Sowter.

Sowter was the first archeologist of the Ottawa Valley, and upon his 1899 expedition to what was called “Lighthouse Island”, he made a most intriguing find: an ancient burial ground.

Now called “Aylmer Island” Lighthouse Island is approximately one acre in size and made up of an assortment of sand, boulders and gravel placed there by the last glacial event thousands of years ago. What was discovered by Sowter and others was abundant evidence of individuals wrapped in birch bark and buried 2-3ft below the surface in a what was described in his journal as being in a “recumbent” position which was unusual, because the known indigenous burial practice had the dead buried in a prostrate position.

Sowter mentions in his article that many more skeletons were found during construction of a lighthouse on the island which lead him to believe the island was a communal burying ground for more than one race of people. Sowter thought this since the burials he found did not align with any known local rituals.

A large pit was then uncovered that showed dozens of bones thrown haphazardly thrown into it rather than bodies carefully placed. Also unearthed were iron axes, knives, flints, and porcelain beads. Sowter hypothesized that such a large burial pit full of so many bones was likely the site of an Indigenous Huron tradition called the “Feast Of The Dead”.

FEAST OF THE DEAD

The Huron Feast of the Dead was a mortuary custom of the Wyandot people who resided in what is today central Ontario. The Wyandot were Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America, and speakers of an Iroquoian language. The custom of burying their dead involved the disinterment of deceased relatives from their initial individual graves followed by their reburial in a final communal grave. This ritual was both for mourning and celebration, and was documented by the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf who was invited in in the spring of 1636 to a large Feast of the Dead on a beach near Midland, Ontario.

Mass reburials of their dead involved transporting remains to a new location outside their villages every ten years or so, sometimes many kilometres away from their villages. Bodies would be taken out of their initial graves with the remains cleaned in preparation for reburial at this new location, such as the one theorized to be at Aylmer Island. However, one key element to this theory throws a wrench into the pit, that being the Huron never resided near the Ottawa River.

Sowter claims that the Huron may have been given sanctuary in the vicinity of Ottawa by the resident Algonquin people after they were defeated in other regions. The human remains uncovered in 1899 from these mass burials still reside at the Canadian Museum Of History and their origins I would guess still remain a mystery.

TOOLS IN TIME

In 1898, a year earlier than Sowter’s visit, an old lighthouse was being demolished on the island to build a newer lighthouse and construction worker unearthed a most peculiar find. It was the skeleton of an individual found buried in a reclined seated position. Along with the skeleton many artifacts were found including a 2 pound iron axe, a knife with an intricate inlaid copper vine motif on its handle, and two other knives. A bone harpoon and fishing net needle, a copper kettle with an iron handle, a bar of wrought iron, sheets of lead, shell beads, and also human hair wrapped in birch bark.

These items were sent to an archeologist in Toronto by the name of David Boyle who said the tools were of European origin, but no maker’s marks were evident so their purpose remains a mystery, perhaps used for woodworking according to Sowter and Boyle.

Boyle suggests the copper kettle was also of European make, with the woven fabric made from human hair or animal fur.

The skeleton found in this unusual seated position was examined and it was determined that the individual met his death by taking an arrow in the lower back. A bone arrowhead had pierced the lower spine vertebrae, paralyzing the unfortunate victim who was found centuries later on the island.

STONE SLAB

In addition to the array of skeletons, tools and other artifacts unearthed on the island, an unusual stone slab was found that was inscribed with “JPOT”. What this indicates is perhaps a grave marker of one of the skeletons, but it was never determined which skeleton it belonged to. Was this inscribed stone showing the initials of someone buried here? If not, JPOT seems like a bizarre name to be carved into a stone. Perhaps one day the stone can be recovered from wherever it now rests and studied further to determine its origins and meaning.

ISLAND OF MYSTERY

Throughout the turbulent and often violent history of the Ottawa River, it seems that Aylmer Island is a unique place that was perhaps specifically chosen for its special location. It faces both the rising and setting sun for those interred there. Many ancient burial rituals and sites incorporate the sun’s position into their location and I would suspect Aylmer Island was no exception, that that is my theory alone and one that was to be tested.

I have not been able to uncover any further details about the Island Of the Dead since Mr. Sowter’s expedition in 1899, so it remains unclear if any further excavations revealed more clues to this mysterious sanctuary in the middle of the Ottawa River. How many other artifacts lie waiting to be discovered beneath the sands of time, and how many other souls rest there? With such intriguing clues discovered over one hundred years ago, I am sure much more fascinating evidence awaits to be found by trained archeologists and Indigenous ambassadors. Perhaps future study can help unravel the mystery of this enigmatic island so close to the Nation’s Capital.

It would seem with such important history behind it that this island would be studied further and later protected from being disturbed. Until that time let us respectfully let those buried there lie in peace on their aptly named, Island Of The Dead.

Andrew King, March 2024

SOURCES

US INTERNET ARCHIVES: https://ia804701.us.archive.org/5/items/canadianfieldnat13otta/canadianfieldnat13otta.pdf

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/archeo/sowter/amilabelse.html

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/archeo/sowter/1900/sowter1900e.html

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

Google Maps

Apple Maps

https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/957782bf-847c-4644-a757-e383c0057995

We take them for granted nowadays, a means of conveyance from one level to another but at one time an escalator and an elevator were marvels of engineering that were celebrated like a magical ride.

Prior to the arrival of the elevator and escalator, we would use stairs to climb up to a higher level, or to go down into the lower levels of an establishment. That all changed in 1854 when Elisha Otis introduced his “safety elevator” and demonstrated it at the New York exposition in the Crystal Palace through a dramatic, death-defying presentation.

The Equitable Life Building, completed in 1870 in New York City, is thought to be the first office building with passenger elevators and retail department stores soon followed.

OTTAWA

It is not exactly known what building housed the first public elevator in Ottawa, but it most likely was installed in the Charles Ogilvy department store in 1907. Charles Ogilvy opened his famed department store at 126 Rideau in August of 1907 and installed a new elevating device by Otis-Fensom, a Hamilton company, the same elevating device that Timothy Eaton had installed in his Toronto department store in 1886.

Ogilvy’s ground floor had a men’s wear department, silks, gloves, hosiery, underwear, ladies’ neckwear, ribbons, laces, and embroidery. Customers could visit the second by staircase or by taking the new elevator up to the second floor to “Ladies Wear”.

Ogilvy’s prosperity as a department store declined in the 80s and by 1992 it had closed operations with the department store being demolished in 2013 for the Rideau Centre expansion project, and eliminating what was probably Ottawa’s oldest public elevator.

THE ESCALATOR

After the elevator’s success, the escalator came onto the scene in March of 1892 when Jesse W. Reno patented his “Endless Conveyor”. In 1896 the first working escalator (called the “inclined elevator”) was installed at Coney Island, New York City in 1896.

Later that year another one was installed on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, and in Boston some of these escalators were still in use until the 1990s.

It wouldn’t be until 1899 that the first commercial escalator was introduced, which won first prize at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle created by the Otis Company and subsequently placed in department stores in both France and England.

Otis holds the trademark rights to the word “escalator” so competitor companies call their versions the “Motorstair”, while Westinghouse calls their model an “Electric Stairway”.

Department stores like Macy’s in New York City installed their escalators in 1927 and are still in use, but where would Ottawa’s first escalator be and when was it installed?

UP ESCALATOR

According to an Ottawa Citizen article from September 14th, 1950, the very first escalator in the Nation’s Capital was installed in a store called “METROPOLITAN” which is now the Indigo Store at Rideau Centre. Heralded as the a “modern escalator for shopping comfort and convenience”

Sadly, Ottawa’s first escalator would be disappear from history when construction began on what would become the “Rideau Centre Mall” and the Metropolitan was torn down to be replaced by the 1980s mall version of the Rideau Centre. It would have been located where the current Indigo store is at Rideau Centre.

With Ottawa’s first escalator entering service in 1950 at the Metropolitan, the competition across the street at Freiman’s Department Store got in on the escalator action and had their very own escalator installed a year later in 1951 when a Westinghouse Electric Stairway was installed to service floors one to three, then later an Otis Escalator installed to access Floors 4 and 5.

This would make it the SECOND oldest escalator in Ottawa, but what was after these trailblazing customer conveyances? Well, Freiman’s opened a second location at Westgate Mall and also installed an escalator there in 1955, making it the THIRD oldest escalator in Ottawa.

But do Ottawa’s oldest escalators still exist and are they in operation? The wonderful website of Urbsite says the original Westinghouse Electric Stairway was still operating in 2015 at the Hudson’s Bay Store that took over Freiman’s department store in 1973.

Heading out this past weekend to see if Ottawa’s oldest escalator was still there I went to the newly renovated Hudson’s Bay store at the Rideau Centre hoping to see the original 1951 escalator. The Hudson’s Bay store that now exists in the space of the original Freiman’s Store did indeed have the original installation of escalators but I was saddened to see the original had been recently replaced with a modern KONA escalator for the floors 1 to 3 that used to be serviced by the old Westinghouse. Ottawa’s oldest escalator was no more.

BUT wait!

As I went up to Floor 4 in the Hudson’s Bay store I noticed the original 1950s Otis Escalator was still there! Yes! The original old base plates marked “OTIS” are still there with likely updated internal mechanics, but the original Freiman’s department store escalator was still operating as it had 73 years ago!

I must have looked like a fool to the staff who were watching me ride up and down the escalators not realizing this was Ottawa’s oldest surviving escalator. Clickety Clack the old escalator whirred as it took customers up and down between floors, proudly carrying on a little known piece of Capital History.

So we have learned that the FIRST escalator, the one from 1950 at the Metropolitan is now gone, but the SECOND oldest from 1951 at Freiman’s is still operating within the Hudson’s Bay store. But what about the THIRD oldest escalator in Ottawa, the one at Freiman’s Westgate Mall location? An investigative checkup was in order.

WESTGATE

Westgate Shopping Centre opened May 12, 1955, and is considered Ottawa’s first shopping centre. The anchor of the mall was the Freiman’s department store, owned by Lawrence Freiman who already operated the department store on Rideau Street with its brand new escalators.

In advertising for its grand opening, Freiman’s new Westgate store boasted that it had parking for over 1200 cars, weather-protected shopping and music for its customers as well as an “escalator to our beautiful home furnishings level”. That escalator from 1955 would make it Ottawa’s THIRD Oldest escalator.

Upon entering what would have been Freiman’s at Westgate is the eastern most entrance to the mall and the escalators that had been there since 1955 are now boarded up and concealed by an advertising wall.

Sadly, it seems the Ottawa’s third oldest escalators were functioning up until 2020 or so, and were an enduring legacy to the Freiman’s store that used to occupy the space around them. With Westgate Mall facing imminent destruction for more condos, we will lose not only Ottawa’s first shopping centre, but another facet of escalator history.

It seems that Ottawa’s department stores have suffered the ups and downs of society and retail markets, just like the escalators that used to expedite customers between their shopping floors. Before it too is demolished, I recommend riding Ottawa’s oldest surviving escalator from the Freiman’s days between floors 4 and 5 at the Hudson’s Bay store in the Rideau Centre. Until then, watch your step…

Andrew King, February 5th, 2024

SOURCES

http://urbsite.blogspot.com/2015/05/metropolitan-stores.html

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_Shopping_Centre_(Ottawa)

Google News Archives

Lost Ottawa

There is a curious island one and a half hours east of Ottawa that many of us have crossed on AutoRoute 40 heading to Montreal. 

I’ve always been interested in this island, as it is situated at a historically strategic position where the Ottawa River meets the St.Lawrence River, a short distance from Montreal. It is called “Ile-Aux-Tourtes” and it seems to be a likely candidate for some interesting history being at a position where these two major waterways converge. 

In a previous post I studied a point of land nearby where there are ruins of a 1600s French stone fort built across fromI le-Aux-Tourtes at Senneville.

That Story: https://ottawarewind.com/2015/02/19/hidden-fortress-17th-century-fort-on-the-ottawa-river/…

A quick Google search of key words “archeology” and “Ile-Aux-Tourtes” turned up some incredible information that does indeed indicate a unique history to this island. It seems archeological investigations between the 1990s and 2000s revealed that there are stone ruins hidden amidst the forest in addition to evidence that it was occupied 6000 years ago.

It was notably used as a burial site as bleached bones were found buried in a pit covered with flat stacked stones in a funerary ritual associated with the Lower Woodland period (3000 to 2400 years ago). Also found were ceramic shards and stone tools belonging to a variety of prehistoric periods. 

Fast forwarding through time, it was also discovered that this was a commercial area linked to the fur trade, and most remarkably the remains of built stone structures that indicate a presence sometime in the early 1700s.  

Stone piles suggest a foundation for a wooden palisaded fort that contained other buildings as well. But what was it? A search of old maps of this area turned up an interesting drawing of some kind of fort on the island, which would substantiate the unearthed stone ruins on the island, but who constructed such a structure and when?

To find out we have to look back on the history of the area when such a structure would have been built and by whom. The first group of Europeans to develop the land around Montreal were the Sulpicians in the 1600s. The Sulpicians played a major role in the founding of the city of Montreal, where they engaged in missionary activities, trained priests and constructed the Saint-Sulpice Seminary founded in 1657 by the Society of Priests of Saint Sulpice, who have been the sole owner of the building since its creation. 

Construction began in 1684 by François Dollier de Casson, superior of the Sulpicians, and was completed in 1687. The Sulpicians of Montreal in the 1600s were from France and served as missionaries, judges, explorers, schoolteachers, social workers, supervisors of convents, canal builders, urban planners, colonization agents, and entrepreneurs. 

Their seminary in Montreal was constructed with the aid of a Master Mason and carpenter, Etienne Trudeau, the patronymic ancestor of the Trudeau family & Canadian Prime Ministers Pierre and Justin Trudeau.

The Sulpicians also built a stone fort in 1685, at the base of Mount Royal later abandoning it. It was almost completely destroyed in the 1850s to build the current college on the site. Only the two towers remain of this 340 year old Sulpician stone fort, a testament to their ability to build hardy stone structures. 

The Sulpicians are named after the Church of Saint Sulpice from Paris, France where it was founded in 1641. The founder of the Sulpicians was Jean-Jacques Olier who had with a global outlook for the Sulpician Order. He thus created the Society of Our Lady of Montreal which created the colony of Fort Ville-Marie in New France, the basis of the modern city of Montreal. The Sulpicians undertook their first overseas mission at the colony in 1657, and eventually were given the control of the seigneury of much of the colony.

Olier was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He specifically desired that the members of the Society of Saint Sulpice celebrate her in a feast called the “Presentation of Mary in the Temple”, which occurs each year on November 21. The Sulpicians were thus under the protection of Mary and this is the reason that the overlapping initials “A” and “M” are found in all Sulpician institutions, representing the Latin expression “auspice Maria” – under the protection of Mary.

When the Sulpicians began their mission around what is now Montreal, it was according to Sulpician records that around 1700 the Sulpician René-Charles de Breslay decided establish a mission on Île aux Tourtes…our island in question.

The first building on the island was built by Breslay in 1706 which was a stone house which also served as a chapel. A stone church was built later in 1710, and then the palisaded “fort” promised to help protect the Indigenous people. These foundations were uncovered in the archaeological investigations.

I have drawn what the fort may have looked like based on the archeological map layout and the description of other structures of that time period.

A wooden guardhouse and an officers’ house were erected at the Île aux Tourtes mission. An archeological excavation on the island revealed the old foundations of the fort of which I have overlaid on to a current aerial image of the island to show where it was located.

Also uncovered were a number of artifacts associated with this 300 year old fort, including metal rings with the Sulpician symbol, of which we learned about their “A&M” logo previously.

Lead seals were affixed to goods to indicate information such as place of origin, manufacture, quality, size, circulation, and taxation. These lead seals marked everything from tobacco and salt to bundles of various trade goods and affixed to a bale of goods at its place of origin and remained on the goods until they reached their final destination, this one being found on Ile-Aux-Tourtes.

The one found on this island shows a horse and St. George spearing a dragon, the number 3 on it indicates that there was a levy of 3 pennies on whatever it was attached to. Curiously, this was made in England between 1660-1724 according to the British History Museum. 

The Sulpicians abandoned the fort for reasons unknown sometime in the 1720s and then nature took over and it remained a hidden piece of history for centuries. Until the end of the 19th century, Île aux Tourtes had several owners, but none seems to have settled there. The original stone buildings quickly fell into disrepair or perhaps they were possibly destroyed by Benedict Arnold’s invading forces when he attacked Montreal during the Battle Of The Cedars in the American Revolution in 1776.

Benedict Arnold leading his Continental Army troops in military maneuvers during the Battle Of The Cedars took over the fort across from this island (Fort Senneville mentioned earlier) and burned it to the ground as they retreated back to the United States. It would not surprise me that we may find some remnants from that skirmish on the island in future investigations. 

The remains of the church and a two-hearth fireplace were in existence and visible in the early 1840s and from 1891 and until the 1930s, several cottage cabins were built on the eastern point near the site of the original fort.

In 1958, a gas pipeline crossing the island from east to west was constructed and in 1961 the construction of the Île aux Tourtes highway and bridge to Montreal likely disturbed the archaeological remains on the southern part of the island.

From a well travelled highway, to 6000 year old prehistoric tools, burial grounds, and a 300 year old French Sulpician fort with possible other hidden archaeological treasures, this curious island provides a fascinating glimpse at a hidden history that begs further investigation. 

Andrew King, January 2024

SOURCES:

https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=180448&type=bien

https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=160080&type=bien

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Olier

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

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1856-0701-5506

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

Google Maps

With the recent popularity of the the film “Oppenheimer”, I was curious as to where the world’s first nuclear reactor would have been located. It’s amazing the information you can find by doing a simple Google search. It seems that with proper funding, more time and purer materials, the first man-made nuclear chain reaction would have taken place in Ottawa. A scientist working at he National Research Council in 1940 by the name of George C. Laurence made the first experimental nuclear reactor in 1940.

A year later, the Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) became the world’s first successful artificial nuclear reactor. On December 2nd, 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in Chicago with the CP-1 reactor.

A year earlier, another reactor was initiated in Ottawa, but lacked the proper materials to be completely successful. Dr. Laurence joined the staff of the National Research Council of Canada in 1930 and became active in improving the measurement of radiation dosage in the treatment of cancer and in promoting safety from radiation exposure, but also became instrumental in creating nuclear energy.

With the world superpowers entrenched in a World War, the Commonwealth country of Canada seemed like an unlikely candidate for creating nuclear power, but like most technological advancements, Canada persevered and was a pioneer in the field.

Research in the National Research Council of Canada during WW2 was focused on wartime efforts to advance allied technology against the Axis powers, and one such avenue of research was that of nuclear energy.

Dr. Laurence in Ottawa in 1940 surmised in his spare time that a very large number of fissions produced in a reaction would release a large amount of energy. There was evidence to show that a large increase in the rate of producing fissions would be easier to accomplish if the neutrons were moving slowly. They would move more slowly if they encountered large numbers of very light atoms such as hydrogen atoms; therefore, it might be advantageous to associate with the uranium a suitable quantity of material containing hydrogen, such as water. Heavy Water.

By this time however, the nuclear scientists in England and the United States had stopped publishing the results of their research, and continued their work in secrecy. With heavy water extremely scarce and hard to produce, Laurence decided to try and use just basic carbon instead of heavy water in his nuclear reactions, as it was cheaper and easier to produce.

So, in Ottawa, between 1940-42, Laurence decide to create his own “Nuclear Reactor” using carbon powder instead of heavy water.

Here are the actual experiment notes from Dr. Laurence on what was likely the world’s first nuclear reactor experiment that occurred in Ottawa:

“In our experiments in Ottawa to test this, the source of neutrons was beryllium mixed with a radium compound in a metal tube about 2.5 centimetres long. Alpha particles, emitted spontaneously from the radium, bombarded atoms of beryllium and released neutrons from them. The carbon was in the form of ten tonnes of calcined petroleum coke, a very fine black dust that easily spread over floors, furniture and ourselves. The uranium was 450 kilograms of black oxide, which was borrowed from Eldorado Gold Mines Limited. It was in small paper sacks distributed amongst larger paper sacks of the petroleum coke.

The sacks of uranium and coke were held in a wooden bin, so that they occupied a space that was roughly spherical, 2.7 m in diameter. The wooden bin was lined with paraffin wax about five centimetres thick to reduce the escape of neutrons. The arrangement is shown above, as a sectional view through the bin and its contents.

A thin wall metal tube supported the neutron source at the centre of the bin, and provided a passage for insertion of a neutron detector which could be placed at different distances from the source. In the first tests the detector was a silver coin, but in most of the experiments it was a layer of dysprosium oxide on an aluminum disc.

The experimental routine was to expose the detector to the neutrons for a suitable length of time, then remove it quickly from the assembly and place it in front of a Geiger counter to measure the radioactivity produced in it by the neutrons. The Geiger counter tubes and the associated electrical instruments were homemade because there was very little money to spend on equipment.”

By 1942, Laurence realized that the nuclear energy released was too small because there was too much loss of neutrons by capture in impurities in the coke and uranium oxide and in the small quantities of paper and brass that were present. These little impurities could lead to failure, and the American and British research teams took over the experiments using more refined materials.

It was in 1942 after these initial Ottawa nuclear experiments that is was decided that a special unit of nuclear research would be set up in Montreal.

On September 2, 1942 Canada received scientists from England, and was provided laboratory facilities and supplies and administer the project in Montréal as a division of the NRC.

The first of the staff from England arrived about the end of the year 1942 and set up shop at 3470 Simpson Street belonging to McGill University.   Three months later, they moved into a 200 square metre area in the large, new building of the University of Montréal, and more scientists and technicians arrived from England.  

The Project became part of the Manhattan Project and with great enthusiasm, a Canadian group of scientists were brought together with a single purpose…to create nuclear energy.

Building reactors in downtown Montreal was out of the question; so the Canadians selected a site at Chalk River, Ontario, on the south bank of the Ottawa River some 110 miles (180 km) northwest of Ottawa.

This is where Canada’s first operational nuclear reactor was born, called “ZEEP”. The Chalk River Laboratories opened in 1944, and the Montreal Laboratory was closed in July 1946 when the Chalk River reactor went critical on September 5th, 1945, becoming the first operating nuclear reactor outside the United States.

Andrew King, September 26th, 2023

SOURCES

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

https://www.cns-snc.ca/media/history/early_years/earlyyears.html