August 2, 2008: Chaffey’s Lock to Jones Falls

This morning we took the dinghy into Chaffey’s Lock so that we could experience the annual celebration of the first Saturday in August, the Corn Roast. This festival is hosted by the Rideau Waterway Land Trust and includes a flotilla, a contest to build and race a boat (in three hours), live bands and freshly shucked and roasted corn on the cob. It was interesting seeing the crowd show up with boats rafted 3 across and families strolling by with their kids and dogs in tow. We saw the decorated boats come from Indian Lake Marina up the waterway and turn and reverse their path at the lock. Someone from the dock called out “Mardi Gras on the Rideau”, and sure enough there was a boat with strangely dressed folks tossing strings of beads to people on the bank. It was like a small town parade with the floats floating. One of the boats was an beautiful old Chris Craft teak boat. After the parade, Tom and I had our corn with hot dogs sitting at a long table by the canal. You could hear the power tools whirring in the distance as the teams used the three sheets of 3/8 inch plywood, a few two by fours, and counted out nails to make their boats. Suddenly the wind picked up and the gray sky got darker and they called off the boat construction. So Tom and I dashed to our dinghy and made it back to the boat just as the deluge started.

We decided that it was time to pull anchor and head on. As Tom pulled up our smaller anchor we discovered that it had dredged the bottom and was thoroughly entwined in water grass. So much so that as Tom pulled it up, it looked like a beach ball coming out of the water. Anchors up, we headed off to Jones Falls.

I just learned today that the Rideau Canal is not only a Canadian Heritage Site, it has been named a World Heritage site. It really is amazing that it was built from 1826-1832 and is basically run the same way today as it was when it was built. Jones Falls was an especially good site to marvel at the construction work that was done. Jones Falls was named after Charles Jones who built the mill at the original falls that dropped over 50 feet at this site. The semi mountainous terrain full of huge boulders and rock clifts is very different than yesterdays cruise through the marsh land. We passed through the “Quarters” today which is a twisty part of the waterway where the officers “quarters” were while the locks were being built. Jones Falls locks includes one lock at the top leading into a large turning basin followed by a three flight lock leading into Whitefish Lake for a drop of 60 feet.

When John Redpath completed the dam at Jones Falls at 63 feet, it was the tallest dam in North America. The keystone arch dam design was constructed of interlocking tapered vertical stones. The huge stones used to build the dam were hauled from a quarry 6 miles away by teams of oxen and moved in the winter since it was easier to move them over the ice. Individual stones, 6 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet, were then heated so that they would not crack while being shaped by stone masons. Sort of reminds you to Stonehenge in England.

We took some time to walk around the site even though it was still raining. We walked over the bridge built in 1883 across Whitefish Lake and down to see the falls cascading down the mountain side. We visited the original fortified lock house where the Sweeny’s lived as the first lock master. They were an unusual couple in that he was an Irish Catholic and she a Protestant. There was a young woman there in the character of Mrs Sweeny, dressed in a long muslin dress. She showed us how she spun wool into yarn with her small foot-pumped wooden spinning wheel. In the bedroom, there was a wooden bed with a tied rope mattress suspension. In the kitchen there was a iron stove for cooking mounted in the fireplace. The two foot thick walls had narrow gun-slits that could be used for rifle ports to defend the house. It also had wide casement windows, that opened inward and could be easily fitted with fire boards during an attack.

We also enjoyed visiting the blacksmith shop, a stone building with two feet thick walls and wide wooden plank floors that was built in 1843. The smith assured us that she did not shoe horses, but only forged pieces needed for lock construction. She had a fire of bituminous coat burning when we entered, which glowed and provided most of the light for the dark room. The forge in the center of the building was narrow and made of brick. She made us a square nail with a bent head as a souvenir and a relic of the methods of the early 1800’s.

When we left Jones Falls we were headed to Seeley’s Bay because they were supposed to have electricity at the town docks and we had found a United Church here. Unfortunately, there is no power at the docks, and the church during the summer is meeting with another church 6 kilometers away. Tomorrow we will try to find in on our bikes. We did see a beaver here though, swimming across the waterway, his big flat tail motoring him along.