National Capital Region Archaeology and History Walking Tour

Meeting Location:  Bytown Museum, Ottawa (under Parliament Hill), 1 Canal Lane, Ottawa      

This will be is an awe-inspiring destination for archaeology and history professionals and enthusiasts, canal walkers, photographers - and those looking to experience culture and nature in the National Capital.

We invite you to join our speakers to learn more about the heart of the national capital region centered on the Rideau Canal, a magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rideau Canal NHS – Sappers Bridge!

Since the eight locks had a vertical drop of 24 meters, a bridge had to be built to facilitate traffic between the lower town areas and the upper town, of Bytown. Sappers Bridge, as it was called at the time, was a robust military structure immediately south of the eighth lock. When it came time to demolish the bridge in 1912 to make way for a large artery, the workers had a surprise.

Your guide: André Miller, is president of Ottawa Chapter - Ontario Archaeological Society and a professional archaeologist working at Parks Canada. With many years of active involvement in archaeology in Quebec and Ontario. He has lived in Gatineau for 12 years and has two master degrees in archaeology from University de Montréal and Laval respectively. Other than Sappers Bridge he will outline proposed rehabilitation work to take place in the near future and related archaeological knowledge.

Rideau Canal NHS - The First Mile

The Rideau Canal World Heritage Site is the location of many buildings and structures of architectural, engineering and historical importance, spanning the whole history of the canal to the present day. Many of these are clustered along the first mile of the canal, starting at the Ottawa River and the flight of locks.

Your guide: David Jeanes, is president of Heritage Ottawa and a retired professional engineer with many years of involvement with communications and transportation. He has lived in Ottawa for most of his life and his high school is one of the heritage buildings beside the canal. He will outline the evolution of the canal corridor as marked by the construction of monumental buildings, bridges and railways. 

From the Gatineau to the Chaudière - A Cultural Landscape

The best way to really learn about the ancient cultural landscape that was once located between the mouth of the Gatineau River and the Chaudière Falls would be from a canoe. Short of that, a good understanding of that landscape that incorporated a carrying place, a burial place, a summer gathering place and a rich environmental setting can be viewed from atop Nepean Point, just under the statue of Samuel de Champlain.

Your guide: Jean-Luc Pilon, the CMH curator of Central Archaeology has long contemplated this landscape from his office window. Recently, with colleague Randy Boswell, he published on its significance.  He has worked across northern Canada from the George River to the Caniapiscau basin, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait, Lake Superior basin, the Ottawa Valley, the Mackenzie Valley.  He also has experience in Tierra del Fuego and the battlefields of northern France.  Yet, as an Ottawa Valley lad, he was always drawn to what was closest to home.