Gananoque River | |
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Gananoque River passing through the dam at Gananoque | |
Location | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Ontario |
Region | Eastern Ontario |
County | Leeds and Grenville United Counties |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Gananoque Lake |
• location | Leeds and the Thousand Islands |
• coordinates | 44°26′16″N76°08′55″W / 44.43778°N 76.14861°W |
• elevation | 82 m (269 ft) |
Mouth | Saint Lawrence River |
• location | Gananoque |
• coordinates | 44°19′32″N76°09′34″W / 44.32556°N 76.15944°W Coordinates: 44°19′32″N76°09′34″W / 44.32556°N 76.15944°W |
• elevation | 78 m (256 ft) |
Basin features | |
River system | Atlantic Ocean drainage basin |
The Gananoque River is a river in Leeds and Grenville United Counties in Eastern Ontario, Canada. [1] [2] The river is in the Atlantic Ocean drainage basin and is a left tributary of the Saint Lawrence River.
The name "Gananoque" has been spelled many different ways over the years and so has been assigned several different interpretations, including "place of health" or "meeting place".
The Gananoque River Waterways Association was founded in 1963 to include "...property owners, resort operators, fishermen, farmers, trappers and all other interested parties..." for the purpose of getting together to "Protect wild life, arrange for equitable water levels, facilitate navigation, maintain health standards through the purity of the water [and] confer with officials in regard to definite arrangements for maintaining and improving the waterway for everyone's use."
The Gananoque River begins at Gananoque Lake in incorporated Leeds and the Thousand Islands township. It flows south, passes through the community of Marble Rock, then turns southwest and reaches the community of Maple Grove. It heads again south, takes in the right tributary Mud Creek, passes under Ontario Highway 401, and enters the town of Gananoque. It then flows over the concrete dam for the Gananoque Generating Station, in service since 1939, [3] and empties into the Saint Lawrence River where that river is part of the Thousand Islands region.
Originally the Gananoque watershed included waters south of the present day Rideau River / Cataraqui River watershed divide near Newboro, Ontario. Water from present day upper Cataraqui watershed lakes such as Birch, Canoe, Buck, Devil, Newboro, Clear, Indian, Benson, Opinicon and Sand flowed through the Jones Falls rapids to the White Fish River. That river flowed into Lower Beverley Lake and from there to the Gananoque River. The original native canoe route from the Ottawa River, via the Rideau River, went to the White Fish River and from there to the St. Lawrence River at Gananoque. This was due to the fact that a direct waterway connection to the Cataraqui River did not exist at that time.
This started to change c.1803 when brothers Lemuel and Carey Haskins built a timber dam and sawmill at White Fish Falls, near today's Morton, Ontario. Their dam backed up the water from the White Fish River, overflowing the Cranberry Flood Plain and sending it to the Cataraqui River at the Round Tail (just north of today's Upper Brewers Locks). By 1816 (perhaps as early as 1805-1807), the Haskins built a mill dam at the Round Tail in order to impound their escaping water. This flooded the Cataraqui Flood Plain by about 6 feet, making it navigable by canoe and allowing direct navigation to Kingston. When the Rideau Canal was built (1826-1832) Haskins' mill dam at White Fish Falls was replaced by a canal dam and weir (at the foot of today's Morton Bay), and the dam at Round Tail replaced by a canal dam at Upper Brewers. The Rideau Canal dam at the foot of Morton Bay now diverts most of the flow to the Cataraqui River. Today's slow flowing Morton Creek (partially flooded due to the dam at Lyndhurst, Ontario) is all that is left of the original White Fish River. [4]
The Rideau River is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is 146 kilometres (91 mi).
The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name Rideau, French for "curtain", is derived from the curtain-like appearance of the Rideau River's twin waterfalls where they join the Ottawa River. The canal system uses sections of two rivers, the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as several lakes. Parks Canada operates the Rideau Canal.
The Cataraqui River forms the lower portion of the Rideau Canal and drains into Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario. The name is taken from the original name for Kingston, Ontario; its exact meaning, however, is undetermined. Early maps showed several name variations including the Great Cataraqui River and Grand River Cataraquay. The river was once called Riviere de Frontenac, or Frontenac River. The alternate spelling "Cadaraqui" also appears in some historic texts.
Gananoque is a town in the Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,159 year-round residents in the 2016 Canadian Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River, Gananoque's most important tourist attraction. The Gananoque River flows through the town and the St. Lawrence River serves as the southern boundary of the town.
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Rideau Lakes is a township located within Leeds and Grenville United Counties in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The township was incorporated on 1 January 1998 by amalgamating the former townships of North Crosby, South Crosby, Bastard, South Burgess and South Elmsley with the village of Newboro.
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Upper Rideau Lake is located in the municipality of Rideau Lakes, United Counties of Leeds and Grenville in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Saint Lawrence River Drainage Basin, and geographically the highest lake on the Rideau Canal System.
Mitchell Lake is a small, man-made lake in the Great Lakes Basin and located in the city of Kawartha Lakes in Central Ontario, Canada. The lake was formed sometime in the first decade of the twentieth century alongside the construction of the Kirkfield Lift Lock, which was completed and operational by the end of 1907. It is part of the summit of the Trent–Severn Waterway, the middle of a connection via canals of Balsam Lake on the Gull River system, which flows eventually to Lake Ontario, and the Kirkfield Lift Lock and Canal Lake on the Talbot River system, which flows to Lake Simcoe and eventually to Lake Huron.
Jones Falls Dam is a dam on the Rideau Canal located in Rideau Lakes, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Ontario, Canada, that was built between 1828 and 1831 to tame the mile-long series of rapids and falls that flowed from Sand Lake and into the White Fish River.
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