James Powell, Allison Margot Smith and Lynn Gehl will be our guest speakers as we mark the 200th anniversary of the start of the Rideau Canal and Bytown – and also explore the impact both had on the Algonquin people, for whom the Ottawa Valley has been home for millennia.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 @ 7 p.m.
Algonquin Anishinaabeg of the Ottawa River Valley: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Guest Speaker: Dr. Lynn Gehl
(Via Zoom)

Saturday, March 28, 2026 @ 1:30 p.m.
The Rideau Canal
Guest Speaker: Allison Margot Smith
Ottawa Public Library Main Branch Auditorium

Saturday, April 25, 2026 @ 1:30 p.m
The Era of Bytown
Guest Speaker: James Powell
Ottawa Public Library Main Branch Auditorium

At the 2026 Ottawa Regional Heritage Fair – to mark this year's bicentennial – the Historical Society of Ottawa, founder and patron of the ORHF, will present the “HSO Bytown200 Award” to the top student project specifically pertaining to Bytown, the Rideau Canal, or the impacts of Bytown and/or the Rideau Canal on the Indigenous people for whom the Ottawa area has been their traditional home.

Each year we also present the “HSO Indigenous Sacred Chaudiere Falls Award” for a student project that reflects and celebrates Indigenous history, culture and traditions in the Ottawa region, or that looks at the impact of settler colonial policies on Indigenous peoples of the Ottawa region.

Both awards consist of a certificate and $300. The ORHF will take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at the Canadian Museum of History.

Educators interested in enhancing their students knowledge of local Ottawa area history should explore the opportunities of our HSO Resource List for Schools as well as our Student Corner HSO Blog.

Check out the stories we've gathered about Bytown and the Rideau Canal to help celebrate the Bytown Bicentennial.

Chloe Dennis is Exhibitions and Collections Manager for the Bytown Museum.

After the completion of the Rideau Canal, it was actively used by transport steamers until the 1870s when a rail line between Ottawa and Kingston was introduced. The Rideau Canal then began to be used more for passenger traffic in the 1880s, and took off exponentially at the turn of the century. It quickly became the central tourism destination and attraction for this area during the summer.

Luxury passenger steamboats were introduced by Daniel Noonan and the Rideau Lakes Navigation Company to serve this new industry; the Rideau Belle was the first in 1885 and the Rideau Queen in 1900.

The Rideau Queen was a large steamboat with lavish interiors serving 300 passengers on its journey between Kingston and Ottawa that took less than a day. The steamboat made stops along the way and attracted spectators as it went on. It ran from June to September, leaving Kingston on Monday and Thursday. The fare was $5 for a return trip, or $3 for one way. Riders could purchase meals for 50 cents, and reserve rooms between $1 and $5.

The First World War brought changes to the steam travel industry, and the Rideau Queen stopped its route in 1915 and was used for freight service until 1933.

Andrew King tells us more about lost luxury steamboats of the Rideau Canal: https://ottawarewind.com/2025/04/16/steamships/

Historian and documentary filmmaker Allison Margot Smith, winner of the Ontario Historical Society’s President’s Awards for her fascinating documentary films, shares four of her short films reflecting back on the history of the Rideau Canal:

“Taverns and Their Keepers”

During the early settlement of the area that becomes the Township of Rideau Lakes, travel is difficult and people depend on taverns for shelter, as they travel through the wilderness. Taverns are also important gathering places for local community members. But, as sites with significant drinking, taverns often experience violence, giving rise to the Temperance Movement and then Prohibition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4TJkRSfaY

“The Rideau Canal: The Big Breakthrough”

The construction of the Rideau Canal cost a great deal, not only in terms of money, but also in lives and time. Colonel John By's use of the slackwater design helped reduce these costs and saved lives - the Big Breakthrough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rs4KbKqI2M

“Fettercain: WWI on Indian Lake”

On Indian Lake, just north of Chaffeys Lock, in the Township of Rideau Lakes, is an island that came to have a hospital for returning soldiers from WWI -- The Great War. These soldiers suffered from PTSD, which at the time was called Shell Shock. Called Fettercairn, the hospital was established in the family cottage owned Agnes Etherington (nee Richardson).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si6BFrsusG0

“Vacations in 19th- and 20th-Century Portland and the Rideau Lakes”

During a period of industrialization in the mid-19th century, Canadians began to move off the farm and into larger towns and cities. But this urbanization made city-dwellers long for nature and the wilderness experience. And with spare time, a bit of money and better transportation options, vacations became a possibility for the urban middle class. This film looks at the emergence of the concept of the middle class vacation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the significance to Portland and Big Rideau Lake. Portland made the transition from being a commercial centre to a hopping hub of recreation. This seamless transition, and the popularization of owner-operated motorboats, undoubtedly played a significant role in the continued use and preservation of the Rideau Canal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS8zbYRDREM

Join us for our March 28, 2026 Speaker Series presentation when Allison will share a brand new film on the history of the Rideau Canal, produced specially for the 2026 HSO Bytown200 Bicentennial Storytelling Challenge: https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/activities/events/eventdetail/184/-/the-rideau-canal

Visit Rideaulakes.ca to view more of Allison’s award-winning films.

Rick Henderson is the great-great-great-great-grandson of Philemon Wright & Abigail Wyman and author of "Capital Chronicles".

Rick recounts the history of the region in four parts:

1. The Curious Cast that Created Canada's Capital
2. Bridging the Divide 
3. Canada's Capital - Set in Stone
4. A Capital Route - Canal

Epi(b)logue - The Inglorious End of Two Glorious Men

Ken Watson, a member of the Board of “Friends of the Rideau” since 1997, is a geologist with a deep interest in Rideau heritage and the environment.

Ken recounts the history of the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America: History of the Rideau Canal.

James Powell takes us back to the early days of the Rideau Canal and Bytown with stories about the Shiners’ War, the Stony Monday Riot, The ByWard Market, Bytown’s first newspaper, Bytown's journey to becoming Canada's capital... and more.

James is the author of the blog Today in Ottawa's History giving  a day-by-day account of local history.

The Chaudiere Bridges
One of the most pressing priorities for Lt. Colonel By and his engineering colleagues, was to span a bridge across the Ottawa River in order to transport essential supplies and workers from Wright’s Town urgently needed to begin construction of the Rideau Canal: The Chaudière Bridges, 28 September 1826

The Canal
James  shares the story of one of the most remarkable engineering feats of its era – the construction of the Rideau Canal: The Canal, 29 May 1832

The Shiners’ War
For the better part of a decade, lawlessness reigned as Bytown’s citizens were terrorized by violent gangs of thugs known as the “Shiners”, cunningly manipulated by the ruthless and ambitious Peter Aylen, a man willing to fuel religious and linguistic division in his attempt to solidify his own unassailable Ottawa Valley timber empire: The Shiners’ War, 20 October 1835

Ottawa’s First Newspaper
500 copies of Bytown’s first newspaper hit the streets on February 24, 1836. James Powell flips through the pages of that first four-page edition and takes a peek at what its first subscribers would have been reading: Ottawa’s First Newspaper, 24 February 1836

The ByWard Market
James Powell traces the history of Lowertown’s almost two-century old ByWard Market: The Byward Market, 4 November 1838

Corporation of Bytown
John Scott was elected the first mayor of Bytown – twice. Initially incorporated in 1847, with John Scott elected as Bytown’s first mayor, Bytown’s charter was subsequently disallowed following a dispute with the Ordnance Department, the military administration that had become accustomed to being in charge since the days of Lt. Colonel John By. James Powell shares the story of how matters were eventually resolved and how, upon reinstatement of Bytown’s charter, John Scott was, for a second time, elected as Bytown’s first mayor: The Corporation of Bytown, 28 April 1847

Stony Monday Riot
In 1849, the Stony Monday Riot erupted in Lowertown between the Reformists and the Tories. Dozens of injuries and one death resulted when as the (mostly Protestant) Tories, furious over the impending visit of the Governor General, Lord Elgin, clashed with the (largely working-class Catholic) Reformists: Stony Monday Riot, 17 September 1849

Lord Elgin Visits Bytown:
Remarkably, Lord Elgin’s visit in 1853 -- only four years after the Governor General had been forced to cancel his visit following Bytown’s violent Stony Monday Riot -- resulted in Lord Elgin’s recommendation that Bytown to be chosen as the Province of Canada’s new capital: Lord Elgin Visits Bytown, 27 July 1853

Choosing Canada's Capital 
Toronto, Kingston, Hamilton, Montreal and Quebec City were among Bytown’s rivals in the intensely-fought contest be chosen as the Province of Canada’s new capital. Bytown even went so far as to change its name to “Ottawa” in hopes of distancing itself from its (well-earned) reputation as a violent and uncivilized backwoods lumber town. James Powell retraces Bytown’s surprising journey to becoming Queen Victoria’s unexpected choice as Canada’s new capital: Queen Victoria Chooses Ottawa, 31 December 1857

Ottawa’s Centenary
In celebration of Bytown’s 100th anniversary in 1926, the Ottawa Journal published an article predicting what Ottawa might be like a century later, in 2026. Today, as we mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of Bytown, James Powell takes us back to 1926 for a look at those predictions and at how else our city celebrated our centenary: Ottawa’s Centenary, 16 August 1926

Paul Weber is a bilingual singer-songwriter, guitarist, storyteller and videographer who likes to share Ottawa history in song.

In this 3½ minute video, Paul performs an ode to the workers who toiled on construction of the Rideau Canal, completed in 1832: Three Years on the Rideau Canal.

In this one-minute video, Paul finds remains of a bridge in the Rideau River, and traces that bridge back to first railroad to reach Bytown, the Bytown and Prescott Railway, the first train arriving on Christmas Day, 1854: Rideau River Train Bridge Ruins.

Andrew King is an Ottawa artist and historian and author of the Ottawa Rewind blog.

• Andrew recalls the steamships that once plied the Rideau Canal: The Lost Steamships of The Rideau Canal (May 22, 1832)
• Andrew unearths the Firth Tavern: Ottawa's First Pub (1819)
• Thirsty canal workers? Andrew combs through old maps to track down Bytown’s first brewery: Ottawa First Brewery (1831)

These transcriptions of Dr. Christie’s travel writings (1830-1833) along the Ottawa River and Rideau Canal provide a unique perspective into that early era.

From the HSO Bytown Pamphlet series:

107. Ottawa River Settlements in 1833 as described by Dr. Alexander J. Christie

Travel writings from 1833 by Dr. Alexander Christie. Reflecting on current events, Dr. Christie describes the settlements, land quality for agriculture, and lumbering and mineral resources of townships adjacent to the Ottawa River between Pointe-Fortune in the lower Ottawa River Valley and the McNab and Clarendon/Bristol settlements upriver. Transcriptions by George A. and Iris M. Neville.

072. Rideau Canal & Bytown Memoranda by Dr. A.J. Christie, Physician to the Rideau Canal Works

Memoranda of a journey from Kingston to Bytown made along the Route of the Rideau Canal, in February 1830. Written by Dr. A.J.Christie. Transcribed by George A. Neville & Iris M. Neville.

(Historical Language Advisory:  Certain parts of the HSO pamphlet series may contain historical language and content that some may consider offensive, for example, language used to refer to racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. These items, their content and descriptions, reflect the time period in which they were created and the viewpoint of their author. The items are presented with their original text to ensure that attitudes and viewpoints are not erased from the record.)