This painting shows a typical Rideau Canal construction camp. The site has been cleared of trees to help prevent malaria. On the right, rough cut stones are ready to be finished by the masons. The meandering nature of the Cataraqui River is evident as is the width of forest cleared for the future navigation channel (the river will be flooded by the dam at Kingston Mills). The lock pit is being dug with picks and shovels, the waste material being removed using wheel barrows. "Brewer's Lower Mill; View down the Cataraqui Creek, & and
Clearing made for the Canal. Excavation for the Lock just commenced, 1829" by Thomas Burrowes, 1829, Archives of Ontario, C 1-0-0-0-67.
What sets the Rideau apart from other lakes and river systems is its rich history. The oldest continuously operated canal in North America, the locks work today much as they did when first opened in 1832. Back then, the Rideau was a wilderness of lakes, rivers and swamps. In the middle of this wilderness, with many men dying from malaria, an engineering marvel was created, the Rideau Canal.
This section will allow you to explore the history of the area from the formation of the rocks, to the Rideau's use today as a vacation paradise.
Links are provided to various sections on this website that contain information about the fascinating history of the Rideau Canal. See the menu below:
The Rideau was a sparsely populated frontier when construction of the Rideau Canal first started. In some places, water power of rapids had been tapped for saw mills, grist mills and carding mills. A few small communities were in existence, but most of the settlement was in the form of widely spaced farms, laboriously hacked out of the forest. A few rough roads connected some of these communities.
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