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What forces influenced life along the
Bonnechere? There are several answers:
 the Algonquin Dome in Algonquin Park which
influenced moisture and weather patterns - Aboriginal communities especially the Algonquin people,
- fur traders supplying the fashion houses of Europe,
- timber barons who opened up this area to Europeans as
they sought out the giant pineries to supply Englands’s housing, furniture
and shipbuilding industries after Napoleon cut off England’s Baltic supply
of wood, forcing her to look to the Ottawa Valley for timbers and lumber.
- farmers who fled the wars of Europe, accepted land grants
and found a market for their summer products in the hundreds of lumber
shanties, and earned off-farm income as woodsmen during the winter harvest of
the forests along the seven rivers that flow from present day Algonquin Park.
- tourists who flock to the many lakes, streams, woodlands
and mountains of this rural part of Canada.
Our history from the 1700’s to now is closely linked to
wood, especially red and white pine. The first growth pineries provided masts
and lumber for England’s shipbuilding as well as later housing and
industrial markets both in Canada and in the United States. A short history of
the Ottawa and Bonnechere Valleys might be expressed in these few words:
- square timber,
- lumber,
- pulp.
To this day, many workers in the Bonnechere Valley continue
to earn a living from wood or wood related industries. |
Routes to Our Roots
Symbols, Totems
Bonnechere
River Facts
The Opeongo Line
The Highway 60
Corridor
Genealogy
John Egan
The Bonnechere
road
The Charles
Thomas story
"Bonnechere" What does it mean?
Foymount Reunion speech pdf
Museum related news
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