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/

Callie Foster, an HSO member and high school student, commends the Bytown Museum’s Virtual Tour as an excellent example of how technology can make history more fully accessible to all, and can contribute to preserving these important stories for generations to come.

In the age where technology is able to connect us more than ever before, we now see history made accessible through virtual experiences. The Bytown Museum’s Permanent Gallery online tour offers a captivating way to explore Ottawa’s rich past without leaving your home. This resource is so valuable when it comes to understanding the importance of accessible history, especially in a world where technology is deeply integrated into nearly every aspect of life.

The Bytown Museum virtual tour takes visitors through the museum’s historic building room by room, with detailed views of artifacts, and informative descriptions. From early settler history to development of Ottawa as Canada’s capital, each display is thoughtfully curated. The navigation tools are simple to use, similar to that of Google maps. You can explore the building at your own pace, deciding which objects pique your interest, and clicking on the buttons that display more information. Even from behind a screen, the atmosphere of the museum is present. Walking through the virtual tour feels just like walking through the real thing, yet at the tip of your fingers.

For many, visiting in person isn’t always an option. Whether it's due to mobility challenges, distance, scheduling conflicts, or other circumstances, virtual tours ensure that history remains open and accessible to everyone. Virtual options benefit teachers, students, those with mobility challenges, researchers, tourists, those without transportation, and many others. This incredible resource is especially important for history lovers who may otherwise never get the chance to step inside the Bytown Museum. We are living in a world where everyone is able to explore the rich history of Ottawa, and it's important to recognize how special that is.

Experiencing the virtual tour of the Bytown Museum gave me a deeper appreciation for the role technology plays in heritage preservation and education. As a high school student, I can vouch for the fact that homework has been primarily online as of late. Accessing an online tour of the Bytown Museum that allows you to tour whenever and wherever you want is so groundbreaking. This resource has benefited me, and I’m sure it will benefit many students like me in years to come. Not only do these virtual platforms help us share knowledge widely, they also serve as a bridge between past and present, encouraging curiosity and engagement in ways that traditional visits sometimes can’t.

As a part of my co-op with the Historical Society of Ottawa, this project reminded me that making history accessible isn’t just a nice bonus, it's a responsibility. If it is possible, why not make it happen? The Bytown Museum’s virtual tour is an excellent example of how we can meet that responsibility, bringing local stories to a global audience and ensuring they are preserved for generations to come.

Visit the Bytown Museum’s virtual tour: https://bytownmuseum.ca/en/exhibitions/virtual-tours/

You might be wondering what UFOs, a cursed box, and science have to do with each other. The answer: all can be found at the National Research Council of Canada on Sussex Drive. In mid-August, Steven Leclair, chief archivist at the NRC, kindly hosted a second group of HSO members on a tour of the NRC’s Sussex Drive facility. Leading us through this remarkable neoclassical structure built to the exacting specifications of Henry Marshall Tory in the 1930s, he pointed out its many architectural and design features. Most importantly, its offices can be easily converted into laboratories and back depending on need. They are also safely isolated from each other in case of an explosion! In fact, so well designed is the building that its laboratories continue to be used for scientific research today, more than 90 years after the building opened for business.

All was quiet in the building when we visited. Our footsteps provided the only sound as we passed down its yellow brick corridors. There was none of the usual hustle and bustle found in your typical office building. The only evidence of anybody working were white-coated scientists visible through glass-panelled doors. Signs posted beside each entrance provided scant clues to what was happening within. Truly this building is a “Temple of Science,” a moniker given to the NRC years ago by a visiting British dignitary.

In addition to the tour, Steve provided a wonderful lecture on the early years of the NRC. He talked about some of the inventions developed at the site, including an early voltage-controlled synthesizer called the Electronic Sackbut by Hugh Le Caine in the 1940s—the forerunner of the Moog synthesizer.

The last stop of the tour was Steve’s “holy of holies”—the archives. Up in his light-filled office on the top floor, Steve showed us treasures seldom seen by the public. This included a mysterious padlocked box. Recently rediscovered, the box had been hidden decades ago by an eccentric researcher who erroneously though he had made an important nuclear discovery. Fearful that his findings might fall into the wrong hands, he hid them in the box, saying that they could only be accessed by the NRC’s archivist when there was world peace. Any breach of these conditions would lead to a curse being placed on the opener. So far, Steve has withstood the temptation to peek inside.

Steve also told us that UFOs give him a lot of grief as the NRC is the repository of all Canadian reports of unidentified flying objects. So far, the NRC has been able to provide plausible explanations for the sightings. No sign of extraterrestrials has been found…yet.

Finally, Steve took the opportunity to tell us that the NRC’s archives are open to the public free of charge. All one need do is ask. Already, tens of thousands of documents and photographs have been digitized and are available on-line. Thanks to Steve’s efforts, these include documents and blueprints related to the fabled Avro Arrow aircraft, the acme of Canadian technical sophistication of the 1950s.

Thank you, Steve, for such an informative and engaging presentation and tour.

What vast history existed here in the Ottawa area, long before the establishment of Bytown and the Rideau Canal? Renowned archaeologist/anthropologist Dr. Jean-Luc Pilon helps us reveal our area’s past.

In this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series, "Time Travelling with the Historical Society of Ottawa", Dr. Jean-Luc Pilon shares "An Archaeologist's Perspective: Uncovering the Ottawa Area's Ancient Past": https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/resources/videos/time-travelling-with-jean-luc-pilon-an-archaeologist-s-perspective-uncovering-the-ottawa-area-s-ancient-past

In this fascinating 45-minute video, “Paddling through the Past”, Dr. Pilon leads us on an inspiring exploration of the clues that are all around us: https://youtu.be/uBUP6OXNd08?si=LT990dWPkTdcEakd

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.

Historian Michael McBane, author of Bytown 1847: Élisabeth Bruyère & the Irish Famine Refugees, re-tells this important story for the "Time Travelling with the Historical Society of Ottawa" HSO/Rogers TV series: https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/resources/videos/time-travelling-with-michael-mcbane-bytown-1847

Michael is also author of John Egan: Pine & Politics in the Ottawa Valley.

Much of our nation’s capital today sits specifically on the (unceded) traditional land of Grand Chief Pierre Louis Pinesi and his family.

Jim Stone, a non-Indigenous historian, researched the story of Chief Pinesi in consultation with members of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, where many of Chief Pinesi’s descendants live.

Here is link to the HSO Speaker Series presentation in which Jim spoke about the life and legacy of Chief Pinesi, with introduction and Q&A by Pikwakanagan Band Councillor Merv Sarazin: https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/past-presentations/chief-pinesi-and-his-pursuit-of-justice

In addition, Jim has written a paper about Chief Pinesi presented here:  https://kichisibiancienttrails.ca/grand-chief-constant-pinesi/

Alastair Sweeny, PhD, has written extensively about Thomas Mackay, including his 2022 book “Thomas Mackay: The Laird of Rideau Hall and the Founding of Ottawa”.

Other books authored by Alastair Sweeny include George-Étienne Cartier: A Biography, BlackBerry Planet, and Fire Along the Frontier: Great Battles of the War of 1812. Alastair is based in Ottawa and is a member of the Historical Society of Ottawa.

More on the story of the New Edinburgh Shintie Club medallions can be read in the excellent book “Win, Tie, or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators 1883-1935” by the late Paul Kitchen.

Scottish Shinty

Shinty (or shintie) is unique to Scotland and is regarded as the Scottish national sport. The game was supposedly introduced from Ireland 2000 years ago, along with Christianity, and was often played clan against clan.

Shinty is played with a cork ball covered in leather, that is slightly smaller than a tennis ball. Shinty sticks or camans were formerly similar to modern hockey sticks and are commonly confused by the same.

Shinty in the Highlands with Camans

The earliest reference to shinty – or camanachd, prounounced ca-man-achd in Gaelic – comes from a Scottish text written on 1608:

A vehement frost continued from Martinmas [November 11] till the 20th of February. The sea froze so far as it ebbed, and many people went into ships upon ice and played at the chamiare [shinty] a mile within the sea mark. Many crossed over the Firth of Forth on the ice a mile above Alloa and Airth, to the great admiration of aged men, who had never seen the like in their days.

The keenness and duration of this frost was marked by the rare occurrence of a complete freezing of the Thames at London, where accordingly a fair was held upon the ice. In Scotland, rivers and springs were stopped; the young trees were killed, and birds and beasts perished in great numbers. Men, travelling on their affairs, suffered numbness and lassitude to a desperate degree. Their very joints were frozen; and unless they could readily reach shelter, their danger was very great. In the following spring, the fruit-trees shewed less growth than usual; and in many places the want of singing-birds was remarked.

The cold was caused by the eruption of the Peruvian volcano, Huaynaputina, which sent over 12 cubic miles of rock and ash into the atmosphere. This caused catastrophic weather events for a decade, including a Russian famine that killed two million.

Ice hockey evolved from Shinty after Highlanders and Scottish soldiers settled in Canada and took to playing shinty on ice for lack of a grass field in winter. Informal ice-hockey games in Canada are still referred to as shinny games.

In 1809, we find one of the very first documented mentions of a ball and stick game being played on the ice by skaters, in Perth, Scotland.

Scone Abbey

Close to Perth is Scone Abbey, where the Kings of Scotland were traditionally crowned for hundreds of years. From the 9th to the 15th Century, Perth was effectively the capital of Scotland. It was a primary residence for monarchs, and it was where the Royal Court was held. Royalty enhanced the early importance of Perth, and Royal burgh status was given to the city by King William the Lion, in the early 12th century.

In 1836, Scottish historian George Penny published Traditions of Perth, a collection of town anecdotes. One of his entries mentions games of shintie being played on Inch Island in the Tay River that runs through the town. Shintie – aka “shinty” – was an old Scottish form of field hockey or bandy, played with a ball and a caman - a shintie stick curved at one end, similar to a field hockey stick. Penny relates that Perth boys also played an ice version on skates:

The Shinty or Club used to be played in all weathers on the Inch; and frequently on the streets, by large assemblies of stout apprentices and boys. This game was also played on the ice by large parties, particularly by skaters, when there was usually a keen contest.

This explicit reference to skates is absent from the 1607-08 and 1740 references to games played on the ice.

It’s highly probable that one passionate player of the game was a seventeen year old Perth lad, Thomas Mackay, apprenticed to his father as a mason. After his father’s death at age 50, Thomas and his wife and mother emigrated to Canada, where he found plentiful masonry work in Montreal. In 1815 he won a contract to build the Lachine Canal, and in 1825, on the recommendation of Governor Lord Dalhousie, the Royal Engineers engaged him to build the Rideau Canal entry locks. In the 1840s, next to the Rideau Falls, he built a mill complex and village he called New Edinburgh, and a villa his daughter named Rideau Hall.

Mackay never forgot the game of his youth, and encouraged his friends and mill workers to take time out for winter play on the frozen Rideau River. On Christmas Day, 1852, Mackay, then age 60, hosted an ice shintie match between the New Edinburgh Scots against the Bytown Sassenachs (Englishmen). The Scots won 2-1 and the Laird of Rideau Hall awarded the Shintie Club winners this silver medal, now in the Bytown Museum in Ottawa.

Mackay’s Silver Shintie Medal, 1852 @Bytown Museum

Curtis Wolfe researches local history and heritage and his writings have been featured in Lowertown’s Community Newspaper The Echo.

Curtis uncovers the history of a local street: What’s in a name? Uncovering the namesake of Tormey Street.

John Morrison lived in Manotick from 1994 to 2005 where he spent many happy hours paddling the area waterways and viewed the river and the canal as his own little piece of heaven on earth.

The Rideau Canal

A curtain does fall, so majestic and proud
Such a natural wonder, so gracious a shroud
Like a powerful train of glory descends
As a continuous fall at the Outaouais end

A fire alights from the south it did spread
To the north like a plague through the heart it has bled
With a mawkish like cry for freedom and joy
But freedom’s best chance was a fraudulent ploy

From a flicker of flame to a firestorm bred
Death escalates through a life cycle of dread
And taming this shrew with its penchant for blood
Was a foolish man’s bait for poor Madison’s club

Yet a fire would spread in a harrowing scene
From a spark it would roar with a devilish scream
From Niagara, on east, to a Forty Mile Creek
To a nondescript farm and a Chateauguay sneak

From Queenstown to Lundy, Detroit and the Thames
The Boxer and Enterprise, surrender of Maine
Through Ohio and Plattsburg, to a Moravian town
The war it did rage for Miss Liberty’s crown

Cities would fall and the towns they would burn
First Newark then York; it was Washington’s turn
War’s firebrand eyes thrust farther to yield
And finally burn in an Orleans field

What came but a draw in this foolish man’s quest?
For power and glory are such meaningless guests
Whatever the gain from the lives that were lost
For the hawkish bent men who lied at great cost

And the curtain still fell, so majestic and proud
As if sensing the chaos, so soothing its sound
Like the rapturous strains of a torrent, transcends
To emerge as a call at the Outaouais end.

***

The years fell away, and the anger did wane
Rush-Baggot had calmed such a petulant strain
An American age brought prosperity’s peace
As a confidant pace of change was unleashed

But the land to the north so upright and proud
Was paranoid still to the south’s freedom sound
A country that cried for security’s calm
Yet stands all alone ‘against a threatening psalm

But this land full of lakes and rivers and streams
Was a natural course for a military dream
For fear set in stride a magnificent quest
To build a canal that was strategically blessed

While the mighty St Laurence was a natural draw
It was fraught with real danger from its rapid rock falls
And upstream it ran with a thunderous roar
Too close to the south with its threatening core

The Ottawa ran to St Laurence’s call
To strike from the north and a western landfall
An historical route that opened the west
Where the traders would meet at the curtain for rest

Two rivers did run from a common high ground
To the south and the north from Lake Rideau their sound
From the shallows and falls through the marshes and swamps
From King’s town to Wright’s town, two rivers as one

To build a canal through this wilderness screams
Of a madness and curse of the military’s dream
A task so immense, so daunting and brash
That only the British could fathom this task

But the British did find a man of the Corp
A Wellington man from the Peninsular War
A man who had held the Canadian Shield
So right for this task with indefatigable zeal

John By was a Colonel and a leader of men
Ahead of his time and a genius, well bred
An engineer’s man with a passionate streak
For simplicity’s beauty with its functional tweaks

With orders to build a navigable path
From the Outaouais south to Ontario’s wrath
To rise from a bay named the Entrance - way crept
Up flight after flight, like some nautical steps

A plan was developed and contracts were signed
Engineering so simple with symmetrical lines
Pure genius at work with a heavenly hand
To guide and instruct a magnanimous man

With Drummond and Redpath, Phillips, MacKay
Canadian contractors, strong men of their day
These artists of stone were men of their word
So forthright and loyal to the Colonel’s accord

The sappers and miners and mason’s stones lay
Stonecutters and woodmen, all of the trades
For comfort, their spirit; their love of the crown
Romantic and colourful, these men of the realm

But the marvelous work that was soon to unfold
Was dependent upon the poor labourer’s code
The back wrenching work to clear out the land
And dig such a ditch with just spades in their hands

Such men from hard times, forever were cursed
To fight for survival and work through their thirst
Through backbreaking strains as their calloused hands scream
As they toiled and they toiled for this military dream

The Frenchmen held sway with their skill and savvy
So noble these men and their role as navvies
Independence of mind with a will to succeed
Just pride in their work and their songs and their deeds

But an Irishman’s fate to arrive at this place
To rescue one’s life from some wretched like fate
The scourge of the earth in the Englishman’s eye
Forgotten at home, they severed all ties

For a pestilence spread to drive them afar
From an emerald isle to this devil’s back yard
Though beauty may rest on the eye from beyond
A hellish nightmare was reality’s song

Just rags on their backs with their wives by their side
With children so weak from starvation and pride
A thousand would fall from a dengue-ish like hue
And die from this work’s laborious flu

Poor brothers would cry as their graves had been marked
So blind to the danger and the peril from sparks
As the powder was set with a magical link
Their lives were extinguished from the death blast’s cruel drink

Yet the lakes and the streams, swift water, rock falls
Were captured and tamed by this engineer’s call
Magnificent feats what By had achieved
In this harsh, hellish wilderness, was hard to conceive

The entrance way blessed by a protestant prayer
The first stone was set by John Franklin with care
Not mindful as yet that his greatness was cast
To die in the Arctic from an arctic cold blast

The curse of Hog’s Back; an Isthmus scourge
The tranquility of Chaffey’s; Long Island was purged
At Burritt’s and Black, these rapids were tamed
And Merrickville’s beauty, a religious refrain

With names like Poonamalie, with its cedar incense
An Indian aura in a wilderness sense
Opinicon’s names and a Cranberry fog
The curse of the labourer to die in this bog

The dam at the falls known locally as Jones
Is a testament still to its magnificent stone
Block upon block in a crescent like stance
Like a rampart of genius or an engineer’s dance

The work underway, six years to progress
The locks were completed, and the dams were well dressed
Through steamy hot summers, through sweat and death’s fear
Through winter’s ice jams; hell’s nightmare those years

The locks and the dams, wastewater and weirs
The cut at the entrance, eight steps to the piers
The breadth of this work remains unfathomable, sealed
As a masterpiece set in the Canadian Shield.

***

The threat from the south was all but contained
For the status quo boundary was all that was gained
From the firestorm set in those years long ago
Extinguished for good as a friendship would grow

Poor tragedy’s mark on this cornerstone lay
On the heart of a man who held the Rideau at bay
Called back by a King who questioned his deed
A question of funds from some zealot to heed

An inquiry would set the tone through the years
To diminish By’s feats; he was ignored by his peers
His spirit would die from his countrymen’s chill
And not from the bog or the Isthmus ills

Yet his legacy flows for our nation to see
Wonderment still, a magnificent deed
To balance such beauty with a functional stream
Through a Canadian wilderness with just minimal means

But the jewel in the crown of this engineer’s quest
Was not the canal or a technical best
For a town that was born on the Outaouais scene
In this land full of lakes and rivers and streams

By the Barracks Hill shanty near the Sapper’s stone bend
A magnificent tower of peace would ascend
From a lower town swamp to an upper town’s view
A great city would grow with great values imbued

For this capital’s crown of achievement remains
From the peaceful green flow of the Rideau, contained
The seeds of a city and a national theme
To build a great country with the freedom to dream

And the curtain still falls, so majestic and proud
Like a sentinel’s call or a passionate bow
For the genius who toiled on the Outaouais scene
And left such a mark with this beautiful stream.

© 2007 John Morrison, Mill Bay BC