Little Lake is a small lake on the Otonabee River in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The lake is in the downtown of the city and is used for fishing, swimming, boating, and for various special events. The lake lies on the water route from Lake Ontario to the Kawartha Lakes. The area around the lake was first settled by Europeans around the start of the 19th century. Steam- and water-powered saw mills were built on the lake and on the river upstream to prepare lumber for shipment overseas. Sawdust and other debris from the mills polluted the lake, killed the fish and clogged up the navigable channels. The smell was so noxious it drove residents near the lake to move. These problems were resolved by the end of the century, when the lake became a hub on the new Trent-Severn Waterway from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. However, industries attracted by cheap hydroelectric power, such as General Electric used the lake for disposal of industrial chemicals for many years. The pollutants seems to be mostly contained in the sediment, and the lake is now considered safe for recreational use.
Peterborough is about 50 kilometres (31mi) north of Lake Ontario and south of the Kawartha Lakes. The Otonabee River flows down from the Kawartha Lakes through Peterborough, where it is joined by Jackson creek at Little Lake, and continues south to Rice Lake. From there the Trent River leads to Lake Ontario.[1] The Otonabee River drops by 144 feet (44m) from Katchewanooka Lake to Little Lake.[2] The Trent Canal leaves the Otonabee River upstream from Little Lake and runs parallel to the river, then rejoins it in Little Lake. With the Otonabee to the west and the canal to the east, the district of Peterborough known as East City is an island.[3]
Little Lake is used for swimming, fishing and boating, including power boats, kayaks, canoes and windsurfers.[6] Anglers may catch bass, walleye, perch and muskie in the lake.[3] There is a small marina on the lake in downtown Peterborough with 92 open slips where boats may be moored on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis.[9] The marina is operated by the municipality.[6] In Crary Park Marina the Otonabee River discharges 55 cubic metres per second (1,900cuft/s) into the lake, and Jackson Creek discharges 20 cubic metres per second (710cuft/s).[10]
The lake is used for special events such as wakeboarding, dragon boating, the Peterborough triathlon and the Festival of Lights. City-owned parkland around the lake includes Beavermead Park (52.6 acres (21.3ha)), Roger’s Cove Park (7.6 acres (3.1ha)), Del Crary Park (8.2 acres (3.3ha)), Millennium Park (4.5 acres (1.8ha)),James Stevenson Park (13.3 acres (5.4ha)). Del Crary Park includes an outdoor performance stage beside the Art Gallery of Peterborough.[6] Beavermead Park was once owned by John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. It takes its name from Beaver Creek and Meades Creek, which flow through the park.[11]
History
Looking north up the river past the railway bridge
Samuel de Champlain is thought to have launched his canoe in Little Lake, travelling down from there to Rice Lake and the Trent River. In 1818 Adam Scott built a sawmill and grist-mill on the south edge of Little Lake. Scott Plains would eventually grow to become the city of Peterborough.[3] The first British settlers arrived early in the 19th century. They travelled overland to Rice Lake, then up the Otonabee to Scott's Plains. From Little Lake they reached the Kawarthas either by continuing up the Otonabee past what is now Lakefield, or by portaging northwest to Chemong Lake.[1] The wife of one of the first settlers came with her family to the area in the winter of 1822–23.[12] She wrote,
At that time there were but few settlers in these townships; and on the second day we travelled nine or ten miles without seeing a house or clearing. At last, we reached "Scott's mill," (on the 12th of February, 1823, at 1 o'clock p.rn.) then the only house in Peterborough. The Little Lake not being safe for teams to cross on the ice, we were obliged to walk over,—our children and luggage being carried by our servants, and some men who kindly assisted. The snow was then about two feet deep. Our ox-team and sleigh were in waiting on the other side, but by the time we had all reached the place daylight began to fail, which made our progress through the woods much more difficult; and the sleigh being loaded, I was obliged to walk. Our lantern, unfortunately, got filled with snow, and our candle so wet that it would not light. So we proceeded slowly, and at last perceived a light before us, and soon reached our log house.[13]
East shore of the lake
In the 1820s, before a dam had been erected at the locks below Little Lake, the Otonabee was shallow and could easily be forded on foot opposite the old steamboat landing beside the Shaw & Fortune steam mill.[14] In 1833 and 1835 L.H. Baird made a survey of the route of what would become the Trent–Severn Waterway connecting Lake Huron to Lake Ontario, and following his recommendation locks were built at Bobcaygeon, Little Lake, Hastings and Chisholm Rapids.[15] Work began on a dam and lock at Whitla's Rapids in 1837, now Scott's Mills lock, where a 3 feet (0.91m) drop in the river prevented steamers from reaching Little Lake, but proceeded slowly.[16] Construction lasted from 1837 to 1844.[17] Three piers and a boom were completed in 1852 by Public Works Canada.[18]
The Little Lake Cemetery was established in 1850 on what was then called Mole's Point, a promontory jutting into the lake.[19] A joint stock company was formed for the purpose at the initiative of W.S. Conger, which purchased the promontory and laid out the grounds.[20]
John Stephenson of Ashburnham (East City) was one of the first to build canoes other than birchbarks or dugouts in the Peterborough region. Stephenson had a water-powered mill for planing lumber on the east bank of the Otonabee, just north of the present Hunter Street bridge. In 1857 he was watching a regatta on Little Lake when he was struck by the effort needed to portage a dugout. The next year he built a lighter and more streamlined plank and rib canoe.[21]
There was a booming lumber industry around the Kawartha Lakes in the 19th century, using dams and chutes to float the wood down to Lake Ontario for shipment to England and other parts of Europe.[22] In 1867 Ludgate & McDougall had a large steam sawmill built by Samuel Dickson in active operation on the east shore of Little Lake, one of several in the area. The Nassau Mill, 3 miles (4.8km) upstream from Peterborough, had 130 saws and was the largest in the county. It could cut 90,000 feet (27,000m) in twelve hours.[23] The sawmills dumped sawdust and other debris into the river, making navigation difficult and killing the fish. Atlantic salmon had been abundant but were now entirely gone. Residents near Little Lake were forced to move away by the noxious odours from decaying wood and rotting fish. The pollution was not brought under control until the 1870s, when Ontario legislature required the saw mills to burn their sawdust.[24]
Opening of the Peterborough Lift Lock
In 1868 the lake was described as being 1 mile (1.6km) in length, 94 miles (151km) above the mouth of the Trent, navigable for boats with a draft of 4 feet (1.2m) of water.[18] In 1887 the Mayor of Peterborough petitioned the Governor General of Canada to undertake dredging of Little Lake, which was under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Government and formed part of the Trent Valley Navigation project that was then in progress. The lake had filled up with sawdust and other debris from mills along the Otonabee above the lake over the last forty years. Material dredged from the lake could be used to build up and widen Crescent Street, thus serving a double purpose. The lake was described as a body of water about 1⁄3 of a mile (0.5km) across that originally had a depth of 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3.0m).[25]
Canalizing the Otonabee River through a navigable 9 miles (14km) stretch from Little Lake to Lakefield would open a continuous line of navigable water from Healey Falls to Balsam Lake, and was the subject of much discussion in the 1890s.[2] The route chosen by Richard Birdsall Rogers involved a series of dams and locks on the river south from Lakefield. On the east side at Nassau a 4 miles (6.4km) excavated canal led to Little Lake. A dam was built across the river at Nassau, and the canal led to a hydraulic lift lock (Peterborough Lift Lock), and then a standard lock at the lower end of the canal where it enters Little Lake.[26]
Centennial Fountain was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canada. It sprays water 76 metres (249ft) high, making it the highest jet fountain in Canada.[3]
Water quality
A cruise boat on the lake
Early in the 20th century several large manufacturers moved to Peterborough to take advantage of the hydroelectric power stations built at the north end of Little Lake. These included Johnson Motor Company, Canadian General Electric and Quaker Oats.[4] Various industries disposed of their waste in the river.[27] By 1930 it had been recognized that Little Lake was polluted with industrial chemicals, which killed large numbers of fish in the river.[28]
A 1989 study found that Little Lake, the Otonabee River and Rice Lake were moderately contaminated, and that the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) was not fully contained in the sediments as had been thought. The shallow bottom of Little Lake causes rapid flushing, with contaminated sediments swept downstream.[29] PCB levels had been monitored for over 30 years by 2018, and had been declining in Little Lake and in the Trent–Severn Waterway in general. In March 2018 a broken fire-suppression line from the GE plant leaked contaminants into the lake. However, in June 2018 the Peterborough Public Health department said it was safe to swim and catch fish in the lake. Much of the contamination was thought to be in the sediment, where it would not affect people using the lake.[30]
The Trent–Severn Waterway is a 386-kilometre-long (240 mi) canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and Severn River. Its scenic, meandering route has been called "one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world".
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada. According to the 2016 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 81,032. The population of the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which includes the surrounding Townships of Selwyn, Cavan Monaghan, Otonabee-South Monaghan, and Douro-Dummer, was 121,721 in 2016. In 2016, Peterborough ranked 32nd among the country's 35 census metropolitan areas according to the CMA in Canada. The current mayor of Peterborough is Diane Therrien.
Coboconk, often shortened to Coby, is a community in the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the south-central portion of the Canadian province of Ontario. The village lies at the junction of Highway 35 and former Highway 48, on the northern tip of Balsam Lake, the highest point on the Trent–Severn Waterway. Coboconk has a prominent role in the logging, limestone, and tourism industries of the Kawartha Lakes region over the past 150 years.
Peterborough County is located in Southern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is Peterborough, which is independent of the county.
The Otonabee River is a river in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada. The river flows from Katchewanooka Lake, at the north end of the community of Lakefield, through the city of Peterborough to Rice Lake. It is in the Great Lakes Basin and forms part of the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Asphodel–Norwood is a lower tier township municipality in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada, with a 2016 population of 4,109. The land on which the township is situated was the traditional territory of the Mississauga, and became open to European colonization following its survey in 1820. The site that would become Norwood was settled in 1823, and it was incorporated as a village in 1878. The township, in its current form, was created in 1998 by the reunification of the village of Norwood with the surrounding township of Asphodel.
Rice Lake is a lake located in Northumberland and Peterborough counties in south-eastern Ontario. The lake is located south of the city of Peterborough, and the Kawartha Lakes and north of Cobourg. It is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway, which flows into the lake by the Otonabee and out via the Trent. The lake is 28 kilometres (17 mi) long and 5 km wide. Its maximum depth is 10m, with a surface water level at 187 m above sea level, raised to its present height by the Hastings Dam, built in the 19th century as part of the Trent-Severn canal system. Natives called it Pemadashdakota or "lake of the burning plains".
The Scugog River is a river in the city of Kawartha Lakes in Central Ontario, Canada. It is in the Kawartha Lakes region, is part of the Great Lakes Basin, and is a branch of the Trent-Severn Waterway.
The Municipality of Trent Lakes is a lower-tier township in the rural, mostly wooded northern section of Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada. The municipality has a primarily cottage and tourist industry based economy but has grown year round residency due to its commute distance to the Greater Toronto Area.
Bobcaygeon is a community on the Trent–Severn Waterway in the City of Kawartha Lakes, east-central Ontario, Canada.
Hastings is a community within the municipality of Trent Hills, Northumberland County, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the Trent-Severn Waterway and the Trans Canada Trail in what is considered to be Ontario's "cottage country". It can be reached from Highway 401 by exiting at exit 474 at Cobourg and going north on County Road 45. It can be reached from Highway 7 at the Norwood exit going south.
Jack Lake is a lake and reservoir in the municipalities of Havelock-Belmont-Methuen and North Kawartha, Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada, about 100 mi (160 km) directly northeast of Toronto and at the edge of the Canadian Shield in the northeastern portion of the Kawartha lakes region. The lake is in the Great Lakes Basin, and serves as a small headwater pond for the Trent-Severn Waterway. The Dispersed rural community of Jack Lake is on the northwest shore of the lake, reached by Peterborough County Road 52 / Jack Lake Road from the community of Apsley, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the north on Ontario Highway 28.
Katchewanooka Lake is one of the Kawartha lakes in south-central Ontario, Canada. It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) long and .5 miles (0.80 km) wide. The Trent Severn Waterway flows through Lake Katchewanooka into the Otonabee River at its outlet just north of Lakefield, continuing southwest through Little Lake in Peterborough and on into Rice Lake. Lakefield College School lies on the east side of the lake.
Anstruther Lake is a lake in the municipality of North Kawartha, Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada, between the community of Apsley on Ontario Highway 28 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) to the east and the community of Catchacoma on County Road 507 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) to the west. Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park encompasses the lake, and the community of Anstruther Lake is on the southern shore. The lake flows out via Anstruther Creek, and the Mississaugua, Otonabee and Trent rivers into Lake Ontario.
Shadow Lake is a lake in the city of Kawartha Lakes in Central Ontario, Canada. With an area of 356.8 hectares and an elevation of 259 metres (850 ft), it is the second lake upstream of the mouth of the Gull River, and is in the Lake Ontario drainage basin.
Peterborough—Kawartha is a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1934.
The Indian River is a river in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin, and is a tributary of Rice Lake.
The Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA), sometimes shortened to Otonabee Conservation, is a conservation authority in Ontario, Canada. Established in 1959 and based in Peterborough, its member municipalities include Asphodel-Norwood, Cavan-Monaghan, Douro-Dummer, City of Kawartha Lakes, Otonabee–South Monaghan, City of Peterborough, Selwyn, and Trent Hills. Major watercourses within the watershed administered by ORCA include the Otonabee, Indian, and Ouse rivers, and Baxter, Cavan, Jackson, Miller and Squirrel creeks.
Burleigh Falls is both a geological feature and a small community in Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada. The falls form the boundary between the municipality of North Kawartha to the north and the municipality of Selwyn to the south.
Canal Lake is a lake of Ontario, Canada, situated in the City of Kawartha Lakes. The lake is triangular, roughly 8.4 kilometres (5.2 mi) long and 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) at its widest point, with an area of 2,136 acres (864 ha). The depth ranges from 4.44 feet (1.35 m) to a max depth of 15 feet (4.6 m). Canal Lake is a medium size lake with a large diversity of fishing spots.
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