Anne's Article About Life on the St. Lawrence River

RIVER RECOLLECTIONS: Portraits of Life along the St. Lawrence River in the 20th Century Ann M. Gefell Author's Note: In 1983 I began to words of the people themselves. mighty St. Lawrence, its beautiful talk with people who lived along the St. Those who tell that history include natural environment and rich history, Lawrence River and had experienced farmers, sturgeon fishermen, Mohawk and draws attention to its increasing the economic, social, and ecological elders, a river boat captain, shop- fragility. changes resulting from the building of keepers,farm wives, former and present Special thanks go to the following the Seaway. Library shelves are filled municipal representatives, town members of the Mohawk community at with booksabout the engineering of the historians, dwellers of islands and Akwesasne: Ernie Benedict, Ron St. Lawrence Seaway, but except for small towns that were flooded-people LaFrance, Jake Swamp, Angus "Shine' booksabout early exploration, shipping who knew a different way of life upon George, Loran Thompson, Sally Bene- and navigation, little has been written the St. Lawrence. They discuss their dict, Douglas George, Peter Blue about the peoples' relationship to the lives since then and what they feel Cloud, Barbara Barnes, Tony Barnes, river. My purpose was to learn about about the future of the St. Lawrence. and Barry Montour and to the memory this relationship by listening to the "River Recollections" celebrates the of Ira Benedict. Harry MacDonald fishing off Longue Sault Island, c. 1933. Warners's Island in background. Plwto courtesy of Mae MacDonald 4 Northeast Indian Quarterly Fall1988 Aerial view of Longue Sault Rapids, pre-Seaway. Photo courtesy of Louisville Historical Society The River for baskets and fur-bearing animals flow of the river stream. At Ogdens- The beautiful SI. Lawrence River for meat and warm clothing in the burg, the only Ll.S, city directly on Valley was once dense with deci- cold northern winters. To the Mo- the River, another river, the Oswe- duous and coniferous forests. The hawk Indians, this place, their home, gatchie, flows into the St. Lawrence, river flowed swiftly and sinuously was Manatowana, or the Garden of directly across from the Canadian for 760 miles, draining water from the Great Spirit. town of Prescott, and together they all the Great Lakes to the Gulf of SI. Though the waters that flow make their way down the narrowest Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean through the SI. Lawrence have their part of the river to what was, until making it the largest fresh-wate; source somewhere east of the Rocky thirty years ago, some of the watershed in the world. Mountains and north of Lake roughest water in North America. During the Ice Age, the glacier Superior, the river claims its What was once the International formed the SI. Lawrence Valley at beginning at the eastern end of Lake Rapids Section was a series of seven the eastern end of the Canadian Ontario at Kingston. Here the open rapids: the Galop Rapids, the Shield where it nestled between the Lake narrows at the largest of the American Galop Rapids, Dead Man foothills of the Laurentian Moun- many islands to become the river Rapids, Rapid de Plat, the South tains to the north in Canada and the winding east and north. This part of Sault Rapids, and finally the largest Adirondack Mountains of New York Manatowana is called the Thousand two, the infamous and torrential State to the south. The forests were Islands, because for seventy-five Longue Sault Rapids near Cornwall. abundant with many kinds of miles as it makes a gradual descent, and the Lachine Rapids, near wildlife and wood to sustain the the River widens and narrows in Montreal. Near Akwesasne and self-sufficient traditional cultures and amongst islands varying in size Cornwall three more rivers flow into that flourished there. The rapid from a rock with a tree on it up to the SI. Lawrence-the Grasse, the river offered multitudes of fresh fish thirty square miles. Because the Racquette, and the St. Regis. - including sturgeon, muskellunge, winds blow from a predominantly From Montreal the river flows southwesterly direction, many of the bass, white-fish, pike, and eel. The wide and free through Quebec. At wetlands and marshes offered reeds tall pines on these islands appear to Tad oussac, the Saguenay River be leaning over, bending with the flows into the St. Lawrence, there __ ~ Northeast Indian Quarterly Fall 1988 5 known by its French name, FIeuve farming islands that the U.s. and On tario region near the border. Saint-Laurent, and from there the Canadian government agencies Within a few weeks of authorization river opens wider still through the claimed were needed for the of the Seaway Act in U'S, Congress Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gaspe projects. The lands were condemned in May of 1954, construction zones Peninsula to Anticosti Island and and expropriated under the laws of were made out of cow pastures, and out into the Atlantic Ocean. the right of eminent domain. Lands the air was filled with promises ofa Before the Seaway was built, the were also acquired for two large better future, of cheap hydroelectric river floor from Ogdensburg to recreational parks in the region-the power, industry, jobs, and a much Longue Sault dropped 92 feet over SI. Lawrence Provincial Park in more "modern" way of life. It was the course of forty miles, creating Ontario and the Robert Moses New said to be the largest public works rapids long recognized for their York State Park. [New York State's project the United States had ever potential for hydroelectric power "Power Broker," Robert Moses, of undertaken. Canadian involvement generation. Developing this power downstate's Long Island "Moses was as great. in the 1950s destroyed the rapids On July 1, 1958, the "Day of and changed the course of the River. Inundation," (as it is now locally known), Canada's Dominion Day, ... nine thousand History of the Seaway the Projects began to flood 40,000 Canadians, Mohawk acres of ancestral lands and and Power Projects Indians, and U.S. citizens cemeteries, covering twelve small who lived in the 50-mile villages and four large farming Before any canal system was islands. The rushing Longue Sault built, the series of rapids between stretch of the International Rapids had been dredged and Ogdensburg and Cornwall pre- Rapids Section were removed, changing the social and vented long-distance navigation up removed from over 40,000 ecological character of the river the river, and even the best of acres of alluvial farmland forever. A completely new water navigators feared the rapids when and large farming islands. table was created when the river traveling downstream. Alternate level was raised 80 feet and con- routes that bypassed the rapids via trolled by dams. Trapping and fish- the Ottawa Ri ver through the ing grounds and populations were Rideau Lakes to Lake Ontario were Parkway" and Jones Beach, was the affected, including the migration prohibitively time-consuming. In first commissioner of PASNY habits of the only real commercial 1842, Irish and Scottish masons (Power Authority of the State of fish in the SI. Lawrence, the finished the Cornwall canal along New York), formed initially to build sturgeon, known not only for its the northern shore of the River, the Niagara Falls and SI. Lawrence roe-caviar-but for its long life and establishing the first direct shipping Projects.] For the Power Project, the huge size. Excursion steamboats no route into the Great Lakes from the famous, torrential Longue Sault longer criss-crossed between Atlantic Ocean. In 1895,the Ontario Rapids were dammed to flood land Canadian and American ports, or Hydro Commission drew up en- that created the 100 square mile shot the Longue Sault Rapids, and gineering plans for the SI. Lawrence man-made "Lake SI. Lawrence," a the river's freezing and thawing Seaway and Power Projects that reservoir or head-pond for the patterns changed. All island lands in would enlarge the River to hydroelectric generating station that the project area which sustained stretched across the river at accommodate larger and deeper apple and dairy farms and year- Massena-Cornwall near the Quebec draught ships and would utilize the round populations were condemned border. rapids for hydro-electric power and expropriated by the Power Work on the Seaway portion pro- generation serving Ontario, Quebec, Authority of the State of New York ceeded concurrently, dredging river and New York State. The combined (PASNY) and abandoned, though bottom and blasting glacial till, some projects would be a subject of some in past years have been used of the hardest known rock, to international debate for more than for cattle grazing and some have deepen and widen the river channel fifty years. recently been put up for sale. to create a "water highway" that When work began on the project Today, environmental protection allowed large ocean-going "salties" in 1954, nine thousand Canadians, laws, particularly the National up the river into Great Lakes ports. Mohawk Indians, and U.S. citizens Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of The massive projects took four who lived in the 50-mile stretch of 1970, together with the economic years to complete, and between 1954 the International Rapids Section had climate of the country, would hinder and 1958 completely enveloped to be removed from over 40,000 initial development of a project of Northern New York and the eastern acres of alluvial farmland and large such magnitude. Even so, in the 6 Northeast Indian Quarterly Fall 1988 ��- ---�=-=== 1970s and early 1980s, winter are living with many effects of the Longue Sault rapids, and of the ice shipping, hotly debated even before original Seaway, have led the jams at Morrisburg and the power- the Seaway was officially opened in opposition to this project that would ful winds that made her sure "that the spring of 1959,was tested on the have flooded the Lachine Rapids, there was a ferocious God some- upper Great Lakes.

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