History Articles

Rapides des Joachims was originally a mission post on the Upper Ottawa River, where an early Hudson's Bay Post was established at the foot of the long rapids. By 1871 it had become a small village doing considerable lumber business. The river steamers called there because it was, at that time, the head of navigation on the Ottawa.

The magnificent stands of white pine located in Bristol township attracted the first settlers in the early 1800's. The municipality of Bristol - located in the south-east corner of Pontiac - was incorporated in 1846, with William Craig as its first mayor. The iron ore deposits, here, where first mined from 1872 to 1894. In 1956, the owners of Hilton Mines constructed the new open pit mining and processing facilities.

1. Which of the following is NOT an island in the Ottawa River?
a) Ile-aux-Allumettes.
b) Ile-du-Grand-Calumet.
c) Ile-Morrison.
d) Ile-Quyon.

2. Which of the following is NOT a municipality in the Pontiac?
a) Bristol.
b) Mansfield-et-Pontefract.
c) Kazabazua.
d) Litchfield.

1) d. (No such island).
2) c. (Kazabazua is in the Gatineu Valley).
3) b.
4) c. (Pinus resinosa, or Norway pine, as the early pioneers called it).
5) d.
6) b.
7) c. (Les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée had a mission here).
8) c.
9) a.
10) b. (Bryson lost its title to a booming Campbell's Bay in 1926).

--May 16, 2007The Pontiac Museum, which is located at the Fairgrounds in Shawville, and which is run by the volunteer Pontiac Historical Society, needs your help! The museum is housed in the former Shawville railway station, which was built in 1886 by the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway. Home to the museum since 1976, the former station is now in need of repair.

The earliest settlers in the Shawville area were Irish Protestants from County Tipperary who came to Canada after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. Many had first settled in the Carp Valley on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River. Local lore tells us that Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth set out from this colony in the summer of 1821 to search for new land to settle. It is believed they paddled up the river, landing in a small bay some forty miles upriver. The two men then set off northward in search of a suitable place to homestead.

Lumbering and farming attracted the first settlers to Campbell’s Bay, which was incorporated as a municipality in 1904. E.H. Workman was the first mayor. The village was named after Lieut. Donald Campbell, a soldier in the Scottish Regiment, who was granted a large amount of land. The main drag, Front Street, is unique in that its buildings are on one side of the street only, giving everyone a majestic view of the Ottawa River.

The village of Bryson was named after the honorable John Bryson, MP for Pontiac. Incorporated in 1873, its first mayor was Walter Rimer.

Located on the banks of the Ottawa River, Bryson was an inland port for passengers and freight heading north-west-ward during the era of steamships. Near Bryson, there are ruins of an old grist mill. People came from as far away as Fort Coulonge to have their grain milled.

Located on the Ottawa River, Calumet Island was for many years the meeting place of the Algonquin people. During the French Régime, Calumet Island, like the rest of the Ottawa River, was a link in the western route to the Great Lakes (via the Mattawa River, Lake Nipissing and the French River up to the Georgian Bay).

One of the original five municipalities in Pontiac, Litchfield was erected on November 20, 1846, with Alfred Lancaster as its first mayor. In December of the following year, the first meeting of the district of the 3rd Division of Ottawa County was held at the home of Samuel Morehead on Highway 148. Today the house is the home of Dawson Morehead. In 1964 the Pontiac County Council (now Pontiac MRC) built its headquarters in Litchfield, on Highway 148 at the edge of Campbell's Bay.