96 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



Intelligent administration on the part of the local 

 authorities and a convenient supply of good materi- 

 als have made this locality famous in another very 

 desirable way, the construction and maintenance of 

 good roads. 



Crushed crystalline limestone is the chief road 

 material used but there is an abundance of gravel 

 in the glacial kames and eskers which are one of 

 the most interesting features in this locality. 

 THE MADAWASKA RIVER. 

 The Madawaska river is the largest tributary of 

 the Ottawa within this region. The greater part of 

 the Algonquin Provincial Park with its innumerable 

 lakes, and large portions of Haliburton, Hastings, 

 and Renfrew counties are drained by this river and 

 its branches. The Madawaska river, therefore, lies 

 almost wholly in the rugged Laurentian upland and 

 only emerges from it when within about 10 miles 

 from the Ottawa. In this part of its course it flows 

 across a plain covered with stoneless marine clay. 



Notwithstanding the length and volume of this 

 stream and the extent of territory which it drains 

 there is only one town on its course, viz. Arnprior, 

 situated at its mouth and one village, Bancroft, in 

 Haliburton county on the York branch. Calabogie, 

 Combermere, and Barrys Bay are small trading 

 points situated on its course but none of these ever 

 attained the size of incorporated villages. 



Traditions concerning lumbering operations attach 

 more frequently to the history of the Madawaska 

 river than to any other stream in the region on 

 account of the large area of its drainage basin, the 

 vast groves of red and white pine it contained and 

 the turbulence of its waters. 



As long as the pine lasted lumbering was the 

 business of the river from its headwaters to its 

 junction with the Ottawa and everything else was 

 subsidiary to it. 



The origin of Arnprior is part of the story of the 

 last Laird of McNab, a picturesque character who 

 conceived the bold if ill-fated design of repairing 

 his broken fortunes and re-establishing the once 

 powerful clan of which he was chief, by a settle- 

 ment on the shores of the Ottawa. Following an 

 agreement with the Government of Upper Canada, 

 the meaning of which was later to become a subject 

 of fierce dispute, McNab arrived in 1825 with the 

 first of the settlers to be located by him as tenants in 

 the township which perpetuates his name. He pro- 

 ceeded to erect a dwelling on the high shore of the 

 Ottawa river just west of the mouth of the Mada- 

 waska, a site of much dignity and natural beauty 

 now embellished by the fine grounds and residence 

 long occupied by the late H. F. McLaughlin. 



The chief's house was according to Bouchette in 

 his British Dominions, "exceedingly comfortable," 



and he extolls "the well furnished board and the 

 cordiality of a Highland welcome" as mitigating for 

 a period the hardship of a canoe trip down the 

 Ottawa in the course of which he became a guest 

 of the "Noble Gael." 



The circumstances of McNab as landlord to a 

 few scattered settlers were not such as to entail the 

 growth of a village about his residence which was 

 moreover subsequently removed to White lake, 10 

 miles west of Arnprior. He had induced, however, 

 three brothers named Buchanan, kinsmen of his, to 

 join his little colony and create a sawmill at the 

 falls of the Madawaska. A hamlet thus came into 

 being and was b^ the Buchanans named Arnprior 

 after their family seat in Scotland. 



At that time and for many years after the busi- 

 ness of sawing lumber at this region was of no great 

 importance, except as regards local needs. Pine 

 timber for export was hewn in the bush and floated 

 down the rivers to tide water in rafts. The business 

 done at the Arnprior sawmills gave little promise of 

 the volume it was afterwards to assume and an 

 English firm to whose hands it passed from the 

 Buchanans, closed down the mill. We must sup- 

 pose the village, therefore, to have been almost 

 deserted when in 1852 the property was purchased 

 by Daniel McLaughlin, who became also the owner, 

 then or subsequently, of much adjacent land for- 

 merly owned by McNab. 



With this event the permanent growth of the 

 place may be considered to have commenced. Two 

 mills were built at the falls and supplied from the 

 vast quantity of pine logs which for many years 

 were floated down the Madawaska. With the 

 expansion of the business which has continuously 

 been owned by the same family, large steam driven 

 mills were erected on the Ottawa and with the 

 sources of supply made available by that great 

 river and its tributaries the firm's operations 

 reached dimensions which classed it as one of the 

 most important producers of pine lumber in the 

 world. Lately the water mills were removed as 

 the Madawaska has ceased to be an important 

 factor in the log supply and the water power has 

 temporarily gone into disuse. For some years the 

 mills have been supplied largely from the firm's 

 lumber holdings in the Petawawa, Black river and 

 Kippawa districts. 



From this brief outline it will appear that although 

 Arnprior is situated in a fertile highly cultivated 

 district its origin, growth, and the occupaton of its 

 people have a closer relation to the forest than to 

 the farm. 



The natural resources of the district surrounding 

 Arnprior consist of an extensive area of flat clay 

 lands, which have great agricultural possibilities. 



