aerial photos

The Sunken Villages Story


July 1, 1958 is remembered as Inundation Day in the region near Cornwall, Ontario. At 08:00 a controlled explosion tore open a cofferdam and four days later an area that had been home to 7,500 people disappeared under the waves of Lake St. Lawrence, part of the newly created St. Lawrence Seaway.

On the Canadian side, twelve communities, some dating back to the 1700s, were affected. Following the old King’s Highway No. 2, upstream: Maple Grove, Mille Roches, Moulinette, Sheeks Island, Wales, Dickinson’s Landing, Farran’s Point and Aultsville were entirely destroyed; Iroquis was demolished and moved a mile to continue on in name; and, about half of Morrisburg – including its waterfront and most of its business district and main street – were levelled.

On the American side in St Lawrence County, the community of Croil's Island disappeared and, along Highway 37B, Louisville Landing and Richards Landing ceased to exist, and parts of Waddington were dismantled.

On both sides, large rural tracts and property, farms, cottages, and entire islands were flooded. Sacred sites were obliterated and the historic battlefield of Crysler’s farm – where in November 1813 Redcoats, local militia and Mohawk warriors staved off a larger American force intent on sacking Montreal – disappeared.

With the communities went their infrastructure. Some buildings were moved and some graves exhumed. Roads, railways, and bridges were left to be buried along with the previous system of locks and canals. All else was levelled, razed to the foundations, cut to the stumps, burned and bulldozed.

Residents were expropriated – some willingly, some not – and moved to the modern, purpose-built, planned Town No. 1 and Town No. 2 (named Ingleside and Long Sault following a community plebiscite), an equally planned and laid out Iroquois, or within a largely rebuilt Morrisburg. Some welcomed the move to brand-new houses with modern amenities or having their old houses moved to lots on higher ground. Others did not. Regardless, all had to move.

The St. Lawrence Seaway was the largest industrial project of its time. A feat of unprecedented industrial accomplishment, it eliminated the powerful Long Sault Rapids and opened the Great Lakes to the ocean-going vessels of its era. In the rapids place, Lake St. Lawrence became the headwater for a massive hydroelectric dam.

The mega-project was a source of great national pride. A reflection of its time, it was celebrated across Canada and the British Commonwealth as the height of modernity and progress. Economic prosperity was virtually guaranteed. Cornwall and the new and old communities in the freshly renamed Seaway Valley would become the “Manchester of the North” or the “Ruhr” area of North America. The Seaway was officially opened in 1959 by Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower.

The lost villages disappeared under the murky water of St. Lawrence Lake and, largely, from our history. Some historic buildings salvaged from the destruction were repurposed to represent the mid-1800s at Upper Canada Village, a popular, government-run historical theme park which owes its existence to the Seaway. In Ottawa, the Battle of Crysler’s Farm is conspicuously absent amongst the lamp-standard banners celebrating most other events of the war of 1812.  In Cornwall, Ontario Power Generation still hands out a digitally re-mastered and metrified DVD of Ontario Hydro’s 1960s promo film “From Dream to Reality” which tells us in its very brief reference to the villages that “progress is not without sacrifice or inconvenience.”

In 1977 in a community-based effort to stem the loss of artifacts salvaged from the flood, the Lost Villages Historical Society (LVHS) was formed. With virtually no public funding, the Society is probably Canada’s only community museum without a physical town or village. Established at Ault Park in Long Sault with historical buildings donated from across the county (most are not from a lost village - those were taken in 1950s by Upper Canada Village) the museum is held together on a shoestring budget by the dedicated efforts of a few volunteers. 

Over the 70 odd years since the Sunken Villages were first razed and then disappeared under water, the LVHS has become both the keeper of their history and a physical place where those who experienced the Inundation, and their descendants, come together.  The interviews, videos, portraits & stories assembled on this website – the human side of a peculiar watery landscape – were made possible by the LVHS bringing together its own. Twenty-seven people share their experiences and perspectives. Please let their very personal, often emotional, singularly fascinating accounts open this overlooked chapter of Canadian history for you.


Sunken Villages Interviews

 
The imagery in this project – aerial photographs taken from a light aircraft, through the air and the water – became possible because of an unintended consequence of the Seaway.  The zebra mussel, disgorged from the bilges of foreign ships have multiplied in their billions throughout the Great Lakes and St. Lawerence River system.  These have clarified the once murky water making what remains of the lost villages visible once again.  



Sunken Villages Aerial Photographs

BUT WHOSE HISTORY?

1958

Newly created St. Lawrence Parks Commission (an Agency of the Government of Ontario) digs up some of the soon-to-be-flooded War of 1812 battle field of Iroqouis Farm (1813) and uses the earth to build a large mound on a new, official park site. This mound hosts the battle field monument (originally erected 1895) and plaque (1921) as well as a new Battle Memorial Building (1961).

1961

Upper Canada Village (UCV), an historical theme park, is constructed from structures salvaged from the ‘Lost Villages’ and retrofied to represent 1867. UCV reflects a 1960s era effort to commemorate Canada’s 1967 centennial.  Today (2024) it is part of a $32 million government agency run by 17 "senior leadership team members” and 577 staff catering to the ’travel trade’ with “goals of thoughtful movement towards financial self-sustainability.” In addition to UCV the commission runs also two museums (in Kingston & Fort Henry) as well as a golf course, marina and campgrounds.

The Commission’s stated mission is that “tourism, recreation, heritage, and cultural experiences in Eastern Ontario are sustained, enjoyed and accessible today, tomorrow and for future generations.” Alas, the Commission and UCV seem uncomfortable with their own (very interesting) heritage  - they make little or no effort to acknowledge Upper Canada Villages exists an offical effort to remediate some of the destruction caused by the Seaway Project.  The Commission provides no support to the Lost Villages Historical Society.    

1977

Incorporation of the Lost Villages Historical Society.  A community-based effort by former residents of the Lost Villages to preserve the memory of their communities. LVHS is a small, volunteer run organisation that survives on donations, guided historical tours and tiny public grants. It  collects and manages artifacts and records housed in its Lost Villages Museum site at Ault Park, in Long Sault, ON. The museum has 11 historical buildings (from around Eastern Ontario, including several from the areas lost to the Seaway). LVHS is probably Canada’s only community museum without a physical town or village.

"One of the main goals of the LVHS is to inform the public, and specifically school children, about the loss of communities which formerly existed along the St. Lawrence River, prior to the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project in the late 1950s."  

1988

Zebra mussels (native to Russia) were discharged via ballast water from a European cargo ship into a Great Lake.  They spread rapdily into the St Lawrence River, filtering the water as they propagagted. One consequence, in the early 2000s, is that the once murky, opaque water of the St Lawrence River began to run crystal clear revealing what was previously hidden. Sixty years after they disappeared the remains of the Lost Villages were once, again, revealed. The remains of the Lost Villages have become a popular diving attraction.

2009

The Sunken Villages project began when aerial photographer Louis Helbig happened to fly over the St Lawrence River and ‘discovered’ what can be seen from the air and through the water of the Lost Villages. There were several art exhibitions of aerial photographs of the Lost Villages beginning in 2011. With the support of the Lost Villages Historical Society,  the Sunken Villages project was expanded to  include interviews and portraits of people (or their descendants) from these communities. In 2013 this culminated in a full scale exhibition at the Marianne van Silfhout Gallery in Brockville, ON and numerous audio visual presentations in Ontario, Quebec and upstate New York.  

This website is part of the Sunken Villages project.  It has three primary components: a gallery of aerial photographs with basic descriptions; a collection of 27 ‘portraits’ giving voice, often for the first time, to thoughts, feelings and observations of those affected by the destruction of their communities; and an audio visual presentation which combines the two.

The sacrifices made in the 1950s in the name of industrial progress are difficult to imagine today. What happened to these communities and their people has long been overlooked and (officially) ignored. I hope this project places the people affected these by these traumatic events back at the centre of what happened. I hope that what they tell us, and what can now be seen in the water, of their communities, gives us pause to reflect both, on these events of 70 years ago, and how we see, understand and interact with each other and our world today.    






BUT WHOSE HISTORY?


1958

Newly created St. Lawrence Parks Commission (an Agency of the Government of Ontario) digs up some of the soon-to-be-flooded War of 1812 battle field of Iroqouis Farm (1813) and uses the earth to build a large mound on a new, official park site. This mound hosts the battle field monument (originally erected 1895) and plaque (1921) as well as a new Battle Memorial Building (1961).

1961

Upper Canada Village (UCV), an historical theme park, is constructed from structures salvaged from the ‘Lost Villages’ and retrofied to represent 1867. UCV reflects a 1960s era effort to commemorate Canada’s 1967 centennial.  Today (2024) it is part of a $32 million government agency run by 17 "senior leadership team members” and 577 staff catering to the ’travel trade’ with “goals of thoughtful movement towards financial self-sustainability.” In addition to UCV the commission runs also two museums (in Kingston & Fort Henry) as well as a golf course, marina and campgrounds.

The Commission’s stated mission is that “tourism, recreation, heritage, and cultural experiences in Eastern Ontario are sustained, enjoyed and accessible today, tomorrow and for future generations.” Alas, the Commission and UCV seem uncomfortable with their own (very interesting) heritage  - they make little or no effort to acknowledge Upper Canada Villages exists an offical effort to remediate some of the destruction caused by the Seaway Project.  The Commission provides no support to the Lost Villages Historical Society.    

1977

Incorporation of the Lost Villages Historical Society.  A community-based effort by former residents of the Lost Villages to preserve the memory of their communities. LVHS is a small, volunteer run organisation that survives on donations, guided historical tours and tiny public grants. It  collects and manages artifacts and records housed in its Lost Villages Museum site at Ault Park, in Long Sault, ON. The museum has 11 historical buildings (from around Eastern Ontario, including several from the areas lost to the Seaway). LVHS is probably Canada’s only community museum without a physical town or village.

"One of the main goals of the LVHS is to inform the public, and specifically school children, about the loss of communities which formerly existed along the St. Lawrence River, prior to the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project in the late 1950s."  

1988

Zebra mussels (native to Russia) were discharged via ballast water from a European cargo ship into a Great Lake.  They spread rapdily into the St Lawrence River, filtering the water as they propagagted. One consequence, in the early 2000s, is that the once murky, opaque water of the St Lawrence River began to run crystal clear revealing what was previously hidden. Sixty years after they disappeared the remains of the Lost Villages were once, again, revealed. The remains of the Lost Villages have become a popular diving attraction.

2009

The Sunken Villages project began when aerial photographer Louis Helbig happened to fly over the St Lawrence River and ‘discovered’ what can be seen from the air and through the water of the Lost Villages. There were several art exhibitions of aerial photographs of the Lost Villages beginning in 2011. With the support of the Lost Villages Historical Society,  the Sunken Villages project was expanded to  include interviews and portraits of people (or their descendants) from these communities. In 2013 this culminated in a full scale exhibition at the Marianne van Silfhout Gallery in Brockville, ON and numerous audio visual presentations in Ontario, Quebec and upstate New York.  

This website is part of the Sunken Villages project.  It has three primary components: a gallery of aerial photographs with basic descriptions; a collection of 27 ‘portraits’ giving voice, often for the first time, to thoughts, feelings and observations of those affected by the destruction of their communities; and an audio visual presentation which combines the two.

The sacrifices made in the 1950s in the name of industrial progress are difficult to imagine today. What happened to these communities and their people has long been overlooked and (officially) ignored. I hope this project places the people affected these by these traumatic events back at the centre of what happened. I hope that what they tell us, and what can now be seen in the water, of their communities, gives us pause to reflect both, on these events of 70 years ago, and how we see, understand and interact with each other and our world today.