Cultural History

The Algonquin Dome

The Algonquin Dome lies between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa Valley. Warm moist air rising through 1000 feet condenses in the form of rain or snow as it ascends the Dome, blown by the prevailing westerly winds off Georgian Bay / Lake Huron. This gives rise to the source waters that form 7 major waterways: the Madawaska, Muskoka, Magnetawan, Amable du Fond, Petawawa, Bonnechere and York Rivers, a situation unique in Ontario and probably in the world.

One way to know an era and its people is to study the historical events that influenced them. Another is to look at what the people said about themselves and about one another; in short, their literature.

Roots become tangible through the life lived in small settlements and along the roads that served them. One such road is The Opeongo Line, surveyed in 1852, at first called the Ottawa and Opeongo Road.

Choose a route less traveled. Soak up the feeling of stepping into a rural past set apart from cell phone or computer chip. Create your own self-directed tour of the Bonnechere and Madawaska River Valleys where timber makers cut and squared logs and sent them down the slides and rapids to the Ottawa and St. Lawrence. Whether you approach from the headwaters in Algonquin Park or from Chats Lake on the Ottawa River, you will be steeped in the lore of pristine white water and flat water where descendants of the pioneer loggers have built settlements and small businesses.

Renfrew, located at the second log chute boasts the O’Brien Theatre, home of an operational Theatre Organ, along with the McDougal Mill Museum. To the pioneers, the rivers were the first roads. Today, if you start at the east from Highway 17, you can travel parallel to the Bonnechere along the Highway 60 corridor, passing from Renfrew through the settlements of the founding Scots, Irish and Polish to Douglas, the leprechaun capital, a centre for crafts, a general store, and bed and breakfast accommodation.

This is the most frequently asked question: ‘How do I get started?’

Begin with yourself and your family.

Use the enclosed page to help you keep track as you talk to relatives and friends.

John Egan was born on November 11, 1811, in the town of Lissavahaun, Galway County, Ireland.
Egan immigrated to Canada in 1830, settling in Clarendon Township where he became a clerk for Thomas Durrell, selling supplies for the shanties.

In 1838, after years of experience in the square timber trade, purchasing supplies and gaining many friends in the timber industry, he decided to go into business for himself. He formed John Egan and Company and bought the farm of James Wadsworth on the Bonnechere River which was later to become the village of Eganville.

Excerpts from Spirits of the Little Bonnechere by Roderick McKay.

Activity on what became known as the Bonnechere Road was heavy at times, and the distances travelled were great. The Bonnechere Road originated at Castleford, at the first chute on the Bonnechere River, a short distance upstream from the Ottawa River. The road then stretched past Renfrew, at the second chute of the Bonnechere River, to Douglas on the third chute, crossed to the south side of the river at the fourth chute and made way to Eganville at the fifth chute.

Charles Thomas was an important figure along the Bonnechere River. His life spanned 80 years, partly spent in the north and partly at Golden Lake. After he left the Hudson Bay Company, he started his own stopping place which he called Charlie’s Hope. Maps of the Golden Lake area show that the point at the end of the McMillan Road bears the name “Thomas Point”

He was born Sept. 9, 1793 and died Mar. 14, 1873. To several of his children, he left farms or properties along the Bonnechere River. Many of his descendants still live in the area, especially in North Algona Wilberforce Township.

The name Bonnechere is made up of two French words: bonne and chère.

Bonne, as an adjective can mean good, fair, pretty, attractive and even further complimentary things. As a noun or naming word, bonne can mean a servant girl, a maid, or a maiden, or a pretty attendant.

Chère as an adjective means dear or fond or loving or darling.

When the two words are put together, there are new meanings: dear one, fair maid, darling sweetheart, fine dining experience, a place of good food.

Bonnechere Museum Articles and News of Local Interest