The Next 30 Years: July 26, 2008: Merrickville, Ontario

This morning we were up early noticing that the lock doors were open and none of the moored boats we thought were before us were moving. So this morning we progressed through the locks at Burritts Rapids, the upper and lower Nicholsons and the three flight lock at Merricksville. Along the way, we talked to various bystanders in the locks. One was a fisherman who told us he had caught over 300 crappie that year in the locks as well as a couple of 7 pound small mouth bass. We decided that there must be fish in the river because you see fishermen everywhere. Another was a fellow who was familiar with North Carolina and had graduated from Wake Forest. Another was a looper from New Jersey who had already completed the entire loop we are on and was on another adventure.

When we arrived in Merrickville, we were delighted to find a place along the dam where there was “hydro”, the Canadian idiom for electricity. Across the street from our mooring spot, we discovered the “ruins” of Merrickville, which included the stone walls of the original “industrial complex”. There was a relief diagram of the area on a platform describing how the buildings stood in 1860 although some of them dated back to the 1840’s. The museum included the foundry for making things of iron; we later saw an old cast iron stove that reminded me of the one in my Grandmother’s kitchen. It had Merrickville, Ont molded into the apron. There was also a flour and grist mill, a saw mill and a woolen mill very similar to the setting at Manotick except here the buildings were mostly in ruin. Also these buildings were located on an island so that water power was available on both sides of the land.

This is also the location of the largest military stone block house on the Rideau. It was built in 1832 by Col John By (the father of the canal system) to defend the canal from the Americans. It was built to house 50 militia men but was never actually used for military purposes. It became the lockmasters quarters, and now houses a canal museum. Several of the rooms in the upstairs are furnished as though a family was living there in the 19^th century including a kitchen with a huge hearth. The square spiral staircase in the center of the building was built spiraling to the right ascending. This would give a soldier defending the second floor with a sword the advantage over an enemy coming up the stairs. The axe carved beams and the old dark plank floors gave a rich sense of a genuine look back in time. The museum was full of fascinating gadgets from those early days including a butter churn operated by a dog running on a treadmill, a baby stroller, and a machine for making rope. They had also reconstructed a one room log school house inside the block house museum including the old writing slate and a pair of old ice skates hanging on the log wall. As you sat there you could image the voices of children coming in from skating down the canal to get to school.

There are lots of little arty and craft shops along Lawrence street. There was an antique shop in an old stone house built in 1830. We also found one that sold WORMS – did I tell you fishing is big here? At the Country Bumpkins Gift shop we found a small wash tub, with “Cold Drinks” engraved on the side, that we decided would be a great shoe holder for the boat, so now we have a souvenir from Merrickville. There is a restaurant here called Dickens’ Gad’s Hill Place, decorated in everything “Charles Dickens”. The menus were inserted into books that resembled a library setting and it was filled with literary references. There was even a picture of Dickens’ third son taken in 1874 as a Canadian Mounty. They had great food and the prime rib came with a Yorkshire pudding.