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adapted by Ken W. Watson from various sources This is a legend on the Rideau with many variants. I’ll start off with the first version that I heard (which I’ve greatly embellished) and then I’ll proceed with several variations of this tale. The stories have the same commonality, a lost treasure consisting of silver coins. There may be some truth behind these stories, I’ll note this at the end of the tales. - kww It was a blustery day on Opinicon Lake, a wicked wind was blowing in from the west. The pay for the workers had been successfully delivered to John Haggart, the contractor at Chaffey’s Mills. The large voyageur canoe was ready for the next section of the trip. The paymaster, his armed escort, and the voyageurs were preparing to head down the lake to Davis Lock and then on to their final stop at Jones Falls. There was only one barrel of silver coins left to deliver, a portion of its contents for the contractor at Davis’ Rapids, the remainder to be delivered to contractor John Redpath at Jones Falls. The contractors were responsible for getting the men’s pay, in American half-dollar silver coins, from the Commissariat in Bytown, to their worksites. Several of the contractors had banded together to do a joint shipment of the pay, by land and water, with an armed escort. The trip initially took place on land, over good roads, but the pay was then transferred to canoe, water being the fastest means of transport along the Rideau, with less risk of brigands stealing the precious cargo. At Chaffey’s lock, the unfriendly state of the unsheltered open lake section of Opinicon Lake wasn’t evident. In any case, it wouldn’t have fazed the paddlers, men experienced in paddling the large voyageur canoe, there wasn’t any water condition they had encountered on the Rideau that they couldn’t handle. With powerful strokes of their paddles, they propelled the canoe rapidly from Chaffeys, south towards the works at Davis’ Rapids.
In the lower water of this pre-canal era, they didn’t enter the main body of the lake until they passed the rocky point at the south end of today’s Murphy’s Bay. Here they encountered the full fury of the wind howling down the length of the lake. The white capped waves whipped against the side of the canoe, rocking it dangerously. No problem for these experienced paddlers, they turned the canoe into the waves, heading up lake, directly into the waves. The idea was to paddle up lake a ways and then make a quick turn, and run downwind, to the shelter of the shore and islands near the channel entrance to Davis’ Rapids. It was on the turn to make the downwind run that they got in trouble. Was it a mistake of the paddlers, perhaps a misjudgement of the waves? Whatever the reason, the canoe was hit by a series of large waves at the critical point in the turn. The waves crashed directly broadside, the men and cargo were thrown sideways and the canoe flipped over. The men hung onto the canoe for dear life, but the cargo, the barrel of coins, plunged to the depths of Opinicon Lake. The men were lucky, the water was warm and the wind blew the canoe, with the men hanging on, to shore. Wet and bedraggled, they made their way back to Chaffey’s to report the mishap. The only location for the missing barrel of coins that they could provide was “in deep water, somewhere off-shore from the rocky point.” Later, this point would become known as “Barrel Point.” John Redpath, when informed that his coins were now the bottom of Opinicon Lake and that his men would have to wait another couple of weeks until new coin could be shipped, was heard to mutter “I told them so.” Redpath had lobbied to be allowed to pay his men by cheque drawn on the Ordnance Department, to avoid the dangers of transporting cash to the worksites from Bytown. His request was turned down with the explanation that “the adoption of this proposal would embarrass the system of account.” Redpath was doubly upset at the loss since, as per the rules established by the Commissariate for all the contractors, he wouldn't get paid for the work completed at Jones Falls in the last month until he proved that his men had been paid. So, not only were his men unpaid, but Redpath himself would remain unpaid until he could secure another barrel of coins. To mollify his unpaid men, Redpath provided double rations of rum, while waiting for a new shipment of coin to arrive. Attempts were made to find the lost barrel, but the technology of the day (dragging the bottom with grappling hooks and nets) precluded being able to properly search the depths, and the barrel of silver coins was never recovered. The coins remain on the bottom of Opinicon Lake to this day. 
Another version of this story has the barrel of coin stolen by one of the men and buried. This man was later found dead along the road - the cause of his death and the location of money remain unknown. A variant on this story is that the workers identified the culprit who stole their pay and murdered him, unfortunately (for them) before he revealed the location of where he buried the coins. In yet another version, the story starts with the pay being shipped overland to the various stations from Bytown. A few of those in charge of pay at the stations were a bit crooked and were skimming the payroll. When authorities became suspicious an investigation was launched. Those guilty buried their hoard and fled south to the U.S., never to return. The money has never been found. This took place at either Davis Lock, and/or Jones Falls and/or Long Island and/or Smiths Falls and/or Rideau Ferry. Some say that the story relates to the payout of Walter Davis Jr., the owner of the sawmill at Davis' Rapids (now Davis Lock). Colonel By bought Davis out in 1829, to allow the lock and dam to be built in the location of Davis’ sawmill and mill dam. Davis was paid in coin, but given the lack of any nearby bank, he did as many in the region, he buried the money for safekeeping. He died of malaria in 1830, without revealing to anyone the location of his buried treasure. It remains buried near Davis Lock to this day. In his book, "Fish Tales," Ed Bebee relates a version of this story as taking place at Jones Falls. An old settler at Jones Falls sold his property for as much money (in silver coins) as he could carry away. He was given a sack full of coin which he staggered away with. Reaching the summit, the weight became too much, so he hid the coins in a cleft in the rock. He staggered home but died that very night from his overexertions. The coins have never been found. Which version, if any, is true? Mention of a lost shipment of coins isn’t evident in any of the records of the day (no Rideau researcher has ever mentioned coming across a direct reference to this). However, the fact that silver coins were being shipped along the Rideau during its construction is true. Although the contractors were paid by cheque (drafts payable in Montreal); as I stated in the first story, payment for the contractor’s men was to be made in cash. There was a mix of money at the time. John Mactaggart explained this in 1829: “THE money in circulation is chiefly what is called dollar-bills, being provincial bank-notes, and Yankee half-dollars, which are about the size of half-crown pieces; silver coins having eagles, stars, and emblems of liberty stamped upon them. British coins are very rare, and are eagerly inquired after ; a sovereign is worth 24s. currency.” [Mactaggart, Vol.1, p. 320]. In terms of payment of the contractor's workers, Mactaggart stated: “All the labourers on the Canal were paid in Yankee half-dollars ; the commissariat furnished these to the contractors, brought up in boxes from Montreal. It was curious enough to see the contractors crawling through the woods with their dollar-bags on their backs. Poor fellows! the trouble Government found in making ready cash payments involved many of them in great distress." [Mactaggart Vol 1., p.324]. The contractors complained about this system and would have preferred to pay their men by cheque, but the Ordnance Department turned them down with the quote that “the adoption of this proposal would embarrass the system of account.” [Bush, p.15]. In order to protect the interests of the workers, the Commissariat (business office of the Rideau Canal during construction) delayed payment to the contractors until it was satisfied that they had settled all outstanding pay with their men. So, some of the facts behind the story are true, silver coins (American half-dollars) were being shipped up and down the Rideau. It is likely that they were shipped both overland (on the better roads in the more travelled sections of the Rideau) and by water (to the more remote worksites). In the first story, I have the contractors (at least those at Chaffeys (Haggart), Davis (Drummond) and Jones Falls (Redpath) joining forces to do a single shipment – but they may have well been shipped separately. Sources: Bush, Edward F., The Builders of the Rideau Canal, 1826-32, Manuscript Report 185, Parks Canada, Ottawa, 1981 Churchill, G. Clare, Rideau Reflections, 1000 Island Publisher, abt. 1992. MacTaggart, John, Three Years In Canada, two volumes, London, 1829.
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Comments: send me email: Ken Watson
