With summer officially here and Canada Day just around the corner it’s the perfect time for a cruise on the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Karen Feeley is the acting external relations manager for Ontario Waterways, but for this trip, she is our first mate.
“There are 44 locks along the Trent-Severn Waterway starting in Trenton and ending in Port Severn,” said Feeley. “Its 386 kilometres of waterway that people can enjoy.”
The Waterway, which has now been in operation in Ontario for 103 years, is considered a national historic site.
“We are a national historic site, but the Peterborough Lift Lock is also its own national historic site,” said Feeley. “For the most part it is kept as it was when it was originally conceived and built.”
She added a number of locks along the waterway are still operated by hand cranks to close and open the lock chamber.
“When the area was first surveyed you couldn’t get through, with rapids and obstacles, so they designed the lockage system,” she said.
“It took a long time to build, 88 years, starting in 1832 in Bobcaygeon and originally it was for the transport of lumber and goods. By the time it was done in 1920 that had kind of petered out, because of the railways so then it became tourism,” said Feeley.
Now, she said, an average of 150 000 boats travel the waterway each year, acting as an economic boost for towns and cities along the route.
“Some of those people are locals and some are from outside of Canada and we call those loopers,” she said, adding many people camp at lock sites as well.
One of the more well-known locks along the waterway is Lock 21, the iconic Peterborough Lift Lock.
“It is the world’s tallest hydraulic lift lock, built without any reinforcing steel and without the help of any mechanized construction equipment,” said Feeley. “It is a treasure, a definite treasure.”
To celebrate Canada Day, lockages along the Trent-Severn Waterway are free on July 1st. There are still fees for mooring and camping.
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