BRITANNIA AND THE POETS' PATHWAY

The Ottawa River is a fitting place to begin the Pathway.

Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott travelled the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, the Gatineau and Lièvre rivers, and the Rideau Canal. They loved being immersed in nature, and Scott taught Lampman how to paddle a canoe. Sometimes William Wilfred Campbell joined them. Scott and Lampman spent a lot of time on the water, and wrote about the shore and the busy lumber scene, as well as the rivers, the hills and nature that surrounded them.

* The Ottawa River is the source of Ottawa’s power. Its name, its being chosen as capital of Canada, its early commerce and its wealth are all because of the river.

* Ottawa’s aboriginal peoples lived near its banks and travelled its length for centuries.

* Pauline Johnson, an aboriginal poet famous in her lifetime, and since, one of the Confederation Poets, read with Archibald Lampman in Ottawa in 1893. We have chosen one of her poems as the first for the Poets’ Pathway, honouring our first poets.

Britannia Park

Britannia Park is a beautiful large park with a stone pier on the Ottawa River, in the west end of Ottawa. Green and lovely, with stunning sunsets spread out across the sky and water, it is the centre of many trails, home to Canada Geese, and to the Ottawa Folk Festival each summer. In summer the yachts from the Britannia Yacht Club dot its waters.

The park has a long sandy beach, play areas for children, a notable domed building for children’s hockey, tennis, long lawns, trees, parking, a picnic area. It is a popular area for outings, filled with families enjoying picnics, swimming, the sun and sand on warm weekends. The Lakeshore Pavilion houses many community activities.

The park has heritage attributes, as a trolley ran here for Sunday outings and the trolley station is still here, as are the Gardener's House (recently turned into a resident artist studio) and the G.B.Greene anchor.

Some History of Britannia Park

• John Lebreton acquired the land near the Chaudière, now known as Lebreton Flats, in 1819. He also bought land, named it Britannia, and erected a grist mill and a saw mill.

• The park was first developed in 1893 when the Ottawa Electric Railway Company decided to establish a new park on the Ottawa River. An auditorium was moved from Victoria Park. Opening day was May 15, 1900.

• The park grew and eventually became a summer resort. An illuminated pier was built in 1901. A boat club built at the end of this pier became famous as the home base for many winning Canadian rowers and paddlers, one of whom was the Olympic champion, Frank Amyot. There was a trophy-lined dance pavilion. The original club house unfortunately burned in 1917.

• Paddle steamers both, the "Albert" supplied ferry service to and from Fitzroy Harbour, and the "G.B. Greene" gave moonlight cruises with dancing on Lake Deschênes. Later the bell and ship's wheel of the G.B. Greene were saved. They are on display at the nearby Britannia Yacht Club.

• The first motion pictures in the area were featured at Britannia. A sheet was placed across the pier entrance to the park and images were projected onto it. As well, there was an open-air live theatre to entertain patrons.

• During the 1950s and into the 1960s, a small steam train ride entertained visitors to the park. Streetcar service in Ottawa ended in the spring of 1959 and was replaced with bus service. The old streetcar shelter is still standing.

Mud Lake

Lovely Mud Lake, a nature lover’s and a birdwatcher’s destination, is just off the Poets’ Pathway, east of Britannia Park. It is a natural lake surrounded by forest and swamp, and is situated at the Deschênes Rapids. There is a path around the lake. Bicycles and dogs are not allowed on the path. Across from the lake is an escarpment, beside which are the Deschênes Rapids.

Mud Lake is bordered by the Ottawa River, Britannia and Cassel Streets. A National Capital Commission (NCC) bicycle path runs along the southern edge.

Hardwood forest, mature white pines, deciduous trees, ponds and swamps mean a variety of attractive habitat for animals, birds and plants. Midland painted and snapping turtles, many songbirds, and water birds, such as Great Blue Heron, blue and green-winged teal, and wood ducks are found here. Of course, squirrels and chipmunks join the throng.

In Lampman’s Time

• Before 1890 there were ten or so cottages in Britannia.
• Some people lived there only in the summer, and Archibald Lampman stayed occasionally.
• Lampman wrote letters from Lac des Chênes.
• In 1892 Britannia had 40 cottages, and some hotels, and civil servants, lawyers, merchants, a publisher, a jeweller, a dentist, and a druggist lived there.
• Access to Britannia was by train, bicycle or horse and carriage.
• The CPR had a station there.

Names of the Ottawa River

Champlain referred to the river as La riviere des Algoumequins.

After the Iroquois had driven the Algonquins out of the Ottawa Valley, the Outaouais Indians from the upper Lake Huron- Lake Michigan region became the predominant Indian fur traders traveling the Ottawa River. From their name, (in Algonquian language ‘to trade’), which was written in many forms, came the eventual name of the river. Among its names were: La Grande Rivière, Outaouais, Utawas, The Grand, The Kitchissippi.

The Ottawa River

The Ottawa River, 800 miles in length, is the highway to a continent. Great flotillas of canoes, sometimes with hundreds of Indian and French paddlers and traders, travelled the Ottawa. Also traveling the river were missionaries, explorers, coureurs de bois, lumbermen, scientists and settlers. Champlain made the first map of part of the upper Ottawa River in 1613.

• The source of the Ottawa is Lake Capimichigama, 155 miles north of Ottawa.
• It passes through lakes and falls dropping 610 feet in its 300-mile westward course to Lake Timiskaming; drops another 85 feet to the Mattawa—another 365 feet during its east and south flow to Ottawa – then drops another 65 feet from the Chaudiere to Lake of Two Mountains.
• Upstream from the Chaudière Falls are the Little Chaudiere Rapids, opposite Val Tétreau, Remic Rapids at the Champlain Bridge, Deschênes Rapids entering Lac des Chênes. After the 26 miles of Lake Deschênes are the dangerous Chats Falls – rapids over rocks – 2 miles, 2 ½ miles wide.

Many of the awe-inspiring rapids and falls of the Ottawa River were objects of superstition. This is Champlain’s description of a native ceremony at Chaudière Falls:

‘after carrying their canoes to the foot of the falls, they assemble at one place, and one of them takes up a collection – each one places a piece of tobacco on the plate – the plate is placed in the middle, and all dance about it, singing, then one of the chiefs makes a speech, saying that for a long time they have been making this offering, and that by this means they are protected from their enemies… the speaker throws the tobacco into the middle of la chaudière, and they make a great cry all together.’

Champlain named the falls, which he saw for the first time in 1613, ‘Saut de la chaudiere.’ This is his description:

‘ the water falls… with such impetuosity on a rock that with the passage of time it has hollowed out a wide deep basin… the water whirls to such an extent, and in the middle boils so vigorously,that the Indians call it Asticou, that is to say, a kettle. This waterfall makes such a noise in this basin that one can hear it from more than two leagues away.’