Gatineau Park Chronicle Fall 2009 Canadascapital.Gc.Ca
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The Gatineau park chronicle Fall 2009 canadascapital.gc.ca Introduction he National Capital Commission (NCC), in collaboration with the French regime, the region’s fur-bearing animals were the focus for trappers, TFriends of Gatineau Park, presents the second issue of The Gatineau coureurs de bois and merchants. The 19th century saw the area open up Park Chronicle , a periodical aimed at increasing awareness of the park’s to colonization, and the population grew rapidly. The region was history and cultural heritage. The first issue, published in 2007, focused explored, drilled and exploited for the riches it contained, and entrepre - on the circumstances surrounding the creation of Gatineau Park. In this neurs made use of its forests, water power and even its underground issue, the authors paint a picture of the park’s industrial past. resources. For centuries, the Gatineau Hills were part of the Algonquin lands, and In bygone days, Gatineau Park was part of the scene of Canada’s industrial these people drew from the land what they needed to survive. During the revolution. Today, it has become the Capital’s conservation park. Gatineau Hills Forest Industry 1800 to 1938 | Myth or Reality? by Denis Messier The Axe Before the Plow From the mid-19th century onward, and particularly after 1854, the year that the It is a well-known fact that, for more Reciprocity Treaty between Great Britain than 150 years, economic development and the United States was signed, our in Canada’s Capital Region was based neighbours to the south represented an primarily on the harvesting of trees. increasingly important market for Local place names are a constant Canadian timber. This period also reminder of this industry’s importance marked the start of the decline in to the region’s history. Names such as exports of squared timber — squaring Wright (Philemon, Alonzo, Tiberius and timber was an extremely wasteful others), Maclaren, Bronson, Sparks, process that left an enormous quantity Eddy, Booth, Edwards, Leamy, McMillan, of unused wood debris in the forest. The Egan, Low, Hamilton, Hurdman, Cross Y era of sawn timber began when the T E I C and Papineau remind us of the entrepre - O government of the united Province of S L A C neurs who profited the most from this I Canada made efforts to regulate and R O T S activity. Other names, much fewer in I earn some revenue from this industry. H Y E number — such as draveurs , portageurs , L L A V Joe-Montferrand and allumettières , U Rapid urbanization in the United States A E N I T Martineau and Ryan — recall the tens of A fed voraciously on Canada’s forests. The G thousands of anonymous workers and Five men and a tractor, 1920 population of Chicago, for example, small manufacturers from far and wide increased from 400 inhabitants in 1833 who worked in the logging camps, on the settlers, began efforts to find markets for addition to the shortage of productive to nearly 300,000 in 1870 — a mush - timber rafts, in the sawmills or the vari - the wood harvested in the region. This was farmland, which forced settlers to diver - room city, built entirely of wood! When ous manufacturing plants established the year that the first timber raft floated sify their activities, factors beyond the some 18,000 buildings burned in on both sides of the Ottawa River. down the approximately 500 kilometres colony’s borders drove this push for Chicago’s great fire of 1871, it is most of rivers from Wright’s settlement to the lumber. American independence and, likely that wood from tens of thousands From the beginning of the colony in export port of Québec. It was the begin - above all, the Napoleonic wars that raged of Ottawa Valley trees went up in smoke. 1800, the wood from the surrounding ning of an adventure that would produce across Europe in the early 19th century New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, forests was used first to build houses and colossal fortunes — but also unimagin - — as well as the blockade imposed Cleveland and Detroit also grew at a other infrastructure required for the able misery — and, somewhere between against Great Britain, which cut it off similarly fast pace. pioneers’ settlement. Wood was also these two extremes, it also provided a from its Baltic markets — prompted essential for making tools and furniture, livelihood for an entire population. England to draw on the resources of heating and cooking. However, the its North American colonies. The oaks, The Forests and the Trees amounts harvested for these uses barely red pines, eastern white pines and great made a dent in the region’s abundant A Market for Wood spruces of the Ottawa Valley were cut, It is well established where the trees were forest resources. Entrepreneurs soon squared and shipped to the British Isles going, but where did they come from? considered exporting lumber to reap The great abundance of this natural to build the ships of the Royal Navy, According to a number of historians who additional profits. resource does not adequately explain the the very navy that would help to have studied the history of the region fervour with which this industry was defeat Napoleon and establish the power and the Ottawa Valley lumber industry, It was in 1806 that Philemon Wright, the pursued and the important role it would of the British Empire for more than while the two sides of the river were leader of the first group of Ottawa Valley have in the country’s development. In a century. exploited equally, the Wrights and other 09-088 The Gatineau Park Chronicle ~ Page 1 productive adjoining lands. In what is in service, to the great displeasure of the now Gatineau Park, because of proximity club’s members. to the water, only the areas around the Meech Creek Valley and the shores of At that time, it was the deciduous forests La Pêche Lake and the La Pêche River — maple, oak, birch, beech and ash — were exploited, according to this model. that were selected for sale on the market in Hull and Ottawa as firewood. The While the great logging industry Great Depression, which lasted for more appeared to come to a halt at the foot of than six years, increased the demand for the hills, this does not mean that the this fuel — much less costly than coal forests covering the hills were free from and oil, which those who were unem - cutting. Many pioneers and small entre - ployed could no longer afford. preneurs also profited from these nearby U resources, but on a cottage industry scale And yet, in 1935, even considering the A E N I T and substantially later in the process. To felling of trees for firewood, as well as the R A M N understand the difficulty of this activity, clearing that took place to develop roads, Y L E C O one needs only to imagine the settlers at establish farms, and build houses and J Lumber pile at Paul Dufour’s sawmill, Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham, ca. 1930 work, alone or accompanied by their other infrastructure, and including the sons when they were old enough, area occupied by lakes, still nearly 80 entrepreneurs had, at first, concentrated logging? It appears that the very nature equipped with a basic axe or two-handed percent of the Gatineau Hills territory on the forests on the shores of the Rideau of the industry, the geomorphology of saw, struggling through the deep snow. was covered with trees. Although the River and the banks of the Ottawa River the region, and the wood-cutting and They had to reach the trees they had report pointed out that logging activity on the Upper Canada (Ontario) side, transportation methods of the era selected, cut them down, trim them and was intensifying in the hills — as was before turning to the north shore. provide as many possible answers as the hoist them onto a sled, or attach a chain dramatically witnessed by the cottagers very few official documents themselves. to them and pull them to the closest established around the lakes since the It appears that, except in Hull, it was not waterway or directly to the sawmill. It is end of the 19th century — it was evident until the late 1820s, when construction Because the limits of timber concessions not surprising to hear the saying that, on that forests still covered the greater part began on the Rideau Canal, that the forest were ill defined, and often practically the farms, before the invention of the of the area studied. It seems that the industry really began on the north side ignored by developers, it is difficult to chainsaw in 1933 and its widespread use alarm — raised very early on, very loudly of the Ottawa River. This activity had verify whether or not the Gatineau Hills after the Second World War, the forests and in very high places by the most started a little earlier, further east, in the were part of the lumber industry. grew more quickly than the time it took influential cottagers — signalled the Petite Nation and Hawkesbury regions. However, the cutting and transportation to cut them down. However, despite the fast-approaching end of this industry in Beginning around 1830, the Gatineau methods used in the 19th century kept amount of hard work involved, most of the hills and hastened the decision in Valley became the scene of intense logging teams within a relatively narrow the great evergreen trees that were access - 1938 to create Gatineau Park. logging activity. The Wright family bene - strip of land which, under ideal circum - ible had been harvested by the end of the fited from its ideal location in Wright’s stances, never exceeded 10 kilometres century.