Tim Horton’s Camp Voyageur leader Myriam Lacerte invited Venetia Crawford and Barbara Haughton to tell the camp councillors about the ghost town, Pontiac Village which was originally located by the camp site. Pontiac Village developed at the foot of Chats Falls on the Ottawa River during the logging days.  Log slides were built over the falls, steamships landed at the foot of the falls, a horse railway was built around the falls and there was an attempt to open a canal to bypass the falls.   That was called the Georgian Bay Canal  – intended to open a passage for boats from Montreal to Georgian Bay on the Great Lakes ( a shorter route by about 300 miles than by St Lawrence).  After hearing the stories, we explored the abandoned buildings and looked at the enormous rock cut, the beginning of the canal.  We concluded by reading a play about the area The Pontiac Highway.

Brenda Everson has videoed this story on You Tube — Historian 1938 Chat Falls trailer  -   47 seconds.  Check it out.   She intends to do a longer video next summer.

Closed on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at 4 pm

Open on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, at 9 am.

Happy Holidays

Walter Brown from Smiths Falls brought us an updated version of his genealogical records, 180,000 entries. He has been supporting our work since we started in 1987.

He attended all four days of our open house from July 5 – 8, gathering more data and helping researchers.

Pierre Louis Lapointe and his wife Marielle came from Montreal to see how the Pontiac Archives have progressed since 1987 when he helped us form the Pontiac Archives.  Lapointe worked at the Centre regionale des Archives nationales du Quebec en Outaouais from 1977 to 1989.

Then he moved to Quebec City to be an archivist at the Archives nationales du Quebec until he retired. He recently moved to Montreal where he is now working on the history of Buckingham.

We showed them all our holdings. Then Venetia Crawford dressed up as Marguerite Charlesbois who married Joseph Mondoin in 1786 and settled at Mondion Point on Pontiac Bay below the Chats Falls on the Ottawa River and told her story.

Elsie Sparrow dressed as Mary Jane Sparling who married John Black in 1853 in Thorne Township in the County of Ottawa.

Their first two years they lived in a tent.  They had 10 children.  When five of them died quite young, they adopted a home child, William Sparrow.

Lorna Reynolds from Norway Bay, Qc, donated Dori Tripp’s book The Book of Agnes.

Reporters from The Equity came to interview us during the week. 

John Maitland was a Scot.  He became a preacher in Ireland.  He moved to Uncle James Maitland’s farm on the Rideau River at Kilmarnock.  Six or seven children were born in Clarendon, Qc, where J. Pendergast asked him to set up a school in 1834.

George McLean from Campbell’ s Bay, Qc, was the first person to drive a truck across North America in 1911.

Alligators of the North  by Harry B Barrett & Clarence F Coons.

Peter Haughton from Bristol, Qc has the alligator from Simcoe at his lumber museum at Haughton’s Bay on the Ottawa River for the summer of 1911.

New material is available on a weekly basis.  Volunteers will be happy to assist you with your project.  

The building is air conditioned and very comfortable on hot days.   Food is available within the block. 

 Free parking is available with entrance from King Street to parking lot on south side of Pontiac Library and Pontiac Archives.

This same poster and other binders depicting the life at Mondion Point _ the site of the trading post, Pontiac Village, Union Village and the present Tim Horton’s Camp will be on display at Norway Bay on June 25, 2011 at 9:30 am.  This is one of the events of McNab Days.  There will be a Boat Flotilla going from Norway Bay to Red Pine Park in Braeside across the river to near Gillies Lumber Yard and the Sand Point pier.  an alligator boat will be on display as well as steamboats, tug boats, scows and dragon boats.

On June 1, 2011, Wednesday, the press will be invited for a sneak preview of the events at Peter and Barbara Haughton’s house by the river.  Venetia’s poster and other archival material will be on display.

Tom Murdock  from Quyon, QC has a photo taken in the early 1980′s believed to be a travelling team on the ‘Rocket and Friends Tour”.   Seven names are still missing.   If anyone has information, please contact the Archives.

The Archives has in their Library of Books, a new one “Waltham  – A gem in Pontiac County”, written by Betty Ryan. It contains very interesting stories and photos about Waltham and her neighbours, The Pembroke Electric Light Company, The Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway, Ferries, and Bridges, Churches, Schools.  Please drop into the Archives and explore this history.

The Historical Project done by Opportunities for Youth 1972 grant to gather and preserve records of Historical Value of Thorne, Clarendon and Shawville.

The students who worked on this were Maydon Dods, Brian Harrison, Brenda Strutt, Ralph Bretzlaff, Jane Bretzlaff, Wendy Woodman, Charles Dickson, Ginny Stones and Merlin Tubman.

They had to work hard to research older people and early history, copy names from headstones in the cemeteries and do their own typing.   Mrs Rosaleen Dickson from The Equity, Pontiac Printshop loaned them a number of typewriters.

They had to keep a record of their purchases such as binder or poster material. 

2010 Robert Wills digitalized  the cassettes to DVDs.  These DVDs are for public use.   They can be viewed and listened to at the Pontiac Archives or signed out according to procedure and taken home to enjoy.  They must be returned and signed back in as returned to the Archives.  

Interviews were with Herman Emmerson, Mr and Mrs Edmund Hodgins, Beulah and Edmund Hodgins, Claude Lemay, Ernest Schwartz, Mrs Ernest Schwartz, Bill Yach, Edna Mitchum, Richard Earl Dagg, Annie Gamble and Irene Gamble Emard, James Turotte, Elard Johnston, Orla Mee, James MacCuaig, Wyman MacKechnie, Harvey Smiley, Cyril and Rae Dale, Leonard Horner, Mrs Hulbert Armstrong, Charles Zimmerling, Clifford Cone, Evaline Hodgins, Lennis and Emma Tubman, Laura Murphy, Herbert Cuthbertson, Verner Thrun/James Crick, Lu McDowell/Heman Elliott/Irene Shaw, Louisa Olm/Mrs Vertal Smiley, Mosey Murphy/Mildred Elliott, Mrs Arthur Dagg/Mrs Arthur Horner.