from The Evening Guide  Tuesday February 14, 1978
by Jim Cutting & Cal Clayton
The research work of A H Richardson, the Forest Engineer with the Ontario Department of Lands and Forest who wrote 'The Ganaraska Watershed' in 1943, a landmark document in its in-depth research and study of the river system and its development and floods over the past century and a half. It formed the basis for the formation of the Conservation Authorities in Ontario, of which the Ganaraska was one of the first formed. Richardson had been chairman of the inter-departmental committee on conservation and Post-war rehabilitation.


Jim Cutting and Cal Clayton 1978

Richardson noted that early in the settlement of the watershed, the river was used by the pioneers for water-power; and a total of 45 mills of different kinds had at one time been in operation on the main stream and its tributaries.

He noted that after 1840 the growth in population in Hope township and Port Hope had been very rapid and by 1850, the country had passed from a pioneer society to an agricultural and lumbering community. Up to 1861 the growth in the number of mills and dams on the river continued, the land being opened up as far north as the upper waters of the North Ganaraska and the Kendal area of the main river. In this period, he noted that mills played a vital part in the opening up of the country and consequently the number of mill dams increased proportionately, reaching a total of 36 in 1861.On the main river there were 16; Duck Pond Branch had two; Quay's branch had three; the North Ganaraska and its tributaries had 11; Little Ganaraska, two and Soper, one and Burnham, one.

Richardson noted that no mill disappeared through failure, and all the early mills on the river were maintained to 1861 with the exception of the Charles Henwood sawmill on the main river which, when burned in 1860, was replaced by a smaller Henwood mill on Quay's Branch in Clarke township which was burned in 1859, after which Harvey Soper moved down to his father's mill on the next lot south. There was a gradual falling off of dams after 1865. After 1869 there was an appreciable drop in the number of dams and by 1875 eight dams had disappeared.

Between 1861 and 1878 ten mills had either failed, been burned, or had their dams swept out by flood and were not rebuilt. Of the 27 mill dams and one reservoir dam remaining, 13 were on the main river.

From 1878 to 1910 there was a further falling off of the number of dams still in operation. There were no additions on the main river, four new dams were built on Quay's Branch, Duck Pond Branch, Outram Stream, and the North Ganaraska Branch. Several of these were retained as fish ponds when their commercial use ended. Certain mill dams were kept in operation after milling activity ceased.

The old Choate Dam became the Corbett Electricity Dam, while on the North Ganaraska, Thomas Campbell made an electricity pond to furnish lights for his mills and residence.

In 1910 when there were 23 dams on the river, eight were on the main river and five were still operating on the tributaries.

Between 1910 and 1942, eight dams on the river fell into disuse; of these the Barrett Dam in Port Hope was by then a complete ruin; the Choate/Corbett Dam above Port Hope fell into disuse by 1911 when the Toronto Electricity Company bought out Dr R A Corbett and established the Port Hope Electric Light and Power Company, to control electricity in this area.

The Watertown grist mill at Kendal was abandoned in the first two decades of the new century. The Dean/Patterson Dam on Gray's Creek of the North Ganaraska ran up until about 1935 and this dam remains as does the Corbett Dam. About 1929, the gates of Soper Dam on Soper Creek in Clarke were opened and it has since fallen into ruin. This left four dams on the main river, and 11 on tributaries.

In 1942 there were still 15 dams in operation on the river and of these eight served mills, one was a power dam (Nicholson File used it to start machinery). The other six were fish ponds.

The first flood of which there is any record occurred prior to 1813 as it is recorded that the log bridge on Walton Street was washed out. This was recorded by Arnot Craick in his Port Hope Historical Sketches. It was also said that this freshet changed the course of the river which previously was much wider at this point than at present and to have disturbed the gravel bed which then existed, exposing the shale rock which is so evident at the present time. The record of this early freshet shows that sometimes, even when a countryside is covered with forest, floods do occur.

According to Richardson, from 1813 to 1848 there were no records of floods found, although it was reasonable to assume that these occurred from time to time, and were of more or less severity. One factor may have been that settlement in the area hadn't progressed too far and therefore little property damage occurred, thus no records were kept of the rising and falling of the river levels.

After 1948, when boom times hit Port Hope with the coming of the railways in the 1850's and the building of the new harbour for shipping, development northward accelerated at a rapid pace as the demand for timber and lumber exports to the United States and Britain boomed.

With the forest along the river chopped down and the lands cleared for farming, the conditions for flooding became more acute and more attention was now focussed on any property damage which occurred along the river.

A warning that the conditions for flooding were becoming more acute with the settlement of the area was carried in the diary of Sarah Hill, who lived on the Duck Pond Branch of the Ganaraska River. Her diary makes the first mention of muddy waters during a spring overflow about 1877, indicating no doubt that water was coming from cultivated land. This was also simultaneous to the period when many dams were built on the river.

Most of these were for local mill operation and impounded small areas of water. Such ponds would have had an ameliorating effect on small floods and at such times would have retarded the scouring and the erosive effect of the river by checking its speed. They no doubt also improved summer flow in the river.

Considering the total acre feet of all the mill ponds, it is doubtful that they would control the river to any great extent in times of severe flood. It is also possible that under certain circumstances the presence of so many dams and ponds on the river might have increased flood conditions lower down the river. These dams were all privately owned, and it is most likely that when the river commenced to rise, each mill owner, fearful that his dam might be washed out, would lift the logs in the dam, with the result that the volume of water going down would be increased.

In Port Hope it is well known that flood conditions have been increased in severity due to the volume of ice coming down the river and forming a jam in the channel, or at some of the obstructions which occurred along its course, within the town limits.

FLOOD OF 1850
Richardson notes that in 1850 over a general area in the vicinity of Port Hope, a flood occured. Newspaper records at that time said it was occasioned by the heavy and incessant rain that fell the preceding night. The creek rose to an unusual height, being at least 10 feet in many places, above the common level.

Choate's Dam did not give way, but road damaged; Port of Bedford, 'Mill dam carried away with a building containing machinery, etc.' 'Gillespie Tavern, Woodshed and several cords of wood carried away.' 'Waddell's mill dam, some damage by overflowing of water on west side.' There were a number of fences thrown down by current that overflowed the low grounds near the harbour...

Richardson notes that the 1850 Port Hope Watchman and N & D Advertiser, made comment about 'the late destructive floods...the greatest and heaviest calamity by water that has ever occurred in the Province,' and also comments that 'Considering the heavy flood, and the amount of property exposed, the loss sustained in this Town and the neighbourhood is comparatively trifling to what it might have been.'

In the 1878 Flood, Richardson's research found that 14 dams were recorded as having been wiped out on the river, including Beamish Dam at Port Hope.

FRIDAY THE 13th FLOOD, JULY 1883 GUIDE FLOOD STORY
The Guide states that 'Another heavy thunder storm set in at noon Saturday. The water fairly poured down and ran in rivulets on both sides of Walton Street, large enough to float a boat in. The damage to the crops in this vicinity is very serious.'

At Garden Hill a fearful storm was raging. The Midland Railway Track was overflowed in several places to the depth of three or four feet...(the train) proceeded carefully... at the rate of four or five miles an hour. When coming to a part of the track which was covered with mud, sod and stones, six or eight inches through, (it) backed up again towards Millbrook... Between those two places (Millbrook and Garden Hill), it was found the track had been washed away in several places.

At Deyell's crossing a hole on the travelled road had been cut out eight feet deep, and railway ties had been carried 40 rods by the flood and thrown on the track.

The storm did not last more than half an hour, and such a downpour, has not been known in the memory of the 'oldest inhabitants'. The barley and fall wheat fields are all flattened by it. The creek at Canton too is overflowing the road. Such a thing has not been known before, unless it had been blocked with ice.

THE JUNE 30, 1890 GANARASKA FLOOD
Richardson noted that this flood affected a general area and the apparent cause was a cloudburst and incessant rain resulting in the flood that followed. The weather was described as being very rainy. Every bridge on the river was washed out; also the board sidewalk and part of Walton Street was gouged out; a child was recorded as having drowned; stores on Walton Street were said to have been damaged and Walter's Dam washed out. The election slated for June 30 was postponed until First of July. (This was described as the 'Mowat Flood').

EDITOR'S NOTE: In 1908 Richardson notes that there was a flood between March 1 and March 16. He states that it was caused by spring thaw and ice. The flood was at its greatest height during the day. The American Hotel on Walton Street was marooned, ice knocked the pillars out from under the hotel verandah. The Ambrose Brewery was filled with ice and houses on Cavan Street were flooded; ten houses and a small farm building were carried down from the north. Cakes of ice, tons in weight, floated down Queen Street coming over the Walton Street bridge. We could not find any record of this flood in the Evening Guide for this date.