Trent Canal. Plan of Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching as Compiled from Old Maps
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Department of Railways & Canals, Canada, 1934 revised (originally dated 1924). Notes: This map appears to be part of a series issued by the Department of Railways & Canals of Canada; other examples of Trent Canal charts are held within the Trent Valley Archives.
It shows Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching, and surrounding areas of Barrie, Orillia, Muskoka, etc. Central compass rose. Numbered 21 at upper righthand corner.
The Trent-Severn Waterway is a 386-kilometre canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. It has been called “one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world.” It was initially surveyed as a military route, and the first lock was built in 1833 for commercial purposes. Construction for additional locks began soon after, but stopped with the outbreak of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. The plan for the locks was suspended as the government decided they would impede military routes and traffic.
When the John A. Macdonald government came into power in the 1880s, they resumed construction temporarily, but it was again suspended. For some years after, the potential of canal construction was used for political leverage and garnering votes, but little work was actually done. When Wilfred Laurier came into power, construction once again started; the canal reached Peterborough and Lake Simcoe in 1904. The link to Georgian Bay was completed in early 1920.
By this point, the canal’s usefulness as a commercial waterway had become obsolete; it was too small to accommodate the much larger ships traveling via the Great Lakes. Railways connected the canals, and they carried the bulk of the freight. Construction was 85% complete, and whatever remained was abandoned; locals now refer to it as the ‘ghost canal.’
, Size : 500x910 (mm), 19.69x35.83 (Inches), Coloring: Hand Colored, Category: Maps Canada Ontario;. Very Good, left and right margins are trimmed. Item #M11118
Price: $1,300.00