Discover Cantley’s History – Three sites, nine descriptive plaques

Cantley 1889 Articles

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The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 34 no 1, July 2022. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.


Discover Cantley’s History – Three sites, nine descriptive plaques

Margaret Phillips

Parc du Traversier

18 rue de l’Ancre (access from chemin Prud’homme); historic beach suitable for kayak or canoe.

Cantley 1889 is proud to announce the new plaque at Parc du Traversier commemorating Cantley’s popular, most essential ferry!

Site of today’s Parc du Traversier showing where the ferry landed at Cantley’s Fleming/Kehoe farm. Passengers whistled to summon the ferry. Barely visible beside the barn, passengers wait for the ferry. Photo1924, GVHS.

Many of Cantley’s earliest farmers settled on land bordering Cantley’s shoreline which also included land directly across the river bordering Chelsea’s shore. Farmers used raft-like scows to regularly sail back and forth with their horses to farm their lands and to socialize with relatives and friends. By the 1850s an important commercial ferry scow service was established between Kirk’s Ferry village in Chelsea and Cantley just offshore from today’s Parc du Traversier. This ferry enabled Cantley people, their livestock, horses and goods to cross the river to access the better road and train station at Kirk’s Ferry.

The Parc du Traversier plaque tells the ferry’s story by using text and archival photos cleverly superimposed on a 1926 map of this section of the river. The plaque encourages you to imagine this site as it was for almost a century.

While researching material for the plaque, our volunteers found inaccuracies in some commonly accepted facts. By far, our most exciting discovery was that of a misidentified 1924 photo in the GVHS archives. Using clues and cross-referencing, we were able to determine that the photo shows the original Cantley ferry landing site at today’s Parc du Traversier. We believe this may be the only photo in existence of this Cantley ferry landing.

There are many marvellous ferry stories, too long for the plaque. For many years, Cantley’s mail came via Kirk’s Ferry. One story tells of a mail carrier who brought Cantley’s mail across by ferry daily with his horse then rode the Cantley roads waving his revolver shouting, “Make way for the Royal Mail!”

The legendary Paddy Fleming was the ferry’s operator from 1898 to 1923. Paddy was everyone’s friend and a practical joker. At night, he might deliberately announce the ferry’s arrival on shore a bit too early, so the unsuspecting passenger disembarked into the dark river water. It’s no wonder Cantley people named this “The Paddy Fleming Ferry”.

A sincere thank you to the Municipality of Cantley for funding this special plaque, to Ali Moayeri for its beautiful design and to our Cantley 1889 volunteers who spent countless hours researching and creating it.

Blackburn Pioneer Cemetery

60, chemin River (parking available near the sign, just inside the gate).

Stroll under the green shade of the forest along a short trail to the cemetery. Enjoy the tranquility of this lovely site.
View two impressive Victorian monuments, memorials to Cantley’s first pioneer farmers.
The plaque shows the Blackburn family in front of their Victorian farmhouse. It tells the significance of this family burial ground with its 32 graves spanning five generations.

Parc Mary-Anne-Phillips

47, chemin Summer; heritage area, river view, outdoor stage, picnic tables, soccer field, playground/exercise structures).

Cantley 1889 restored this historic Gatineau River tugboat (2012 to 2014). Surrounding it are five plaques of images and texts telling the tugboat’s story and the 200-year history of the Gatineau River Log Drive.
From the tugboat deck is a view of the city skyline and the Gatineau River’s Horseshoe Bay where the tug operated for over 30 years. These two plaques show a 1927 map telling of five historic sites you can see within view.
Algonquin artist Denis Charette created this log and carved wood sculpture symbolizing the river before and after the arrival of Europeans. Its symbols depict the impact of logging on the river’s natural environment, its wildlife and on Indigenous people. Project commissioned by MRC.
There were dozens of mines in Cantley a century ago. Cantley 1889 restored this mine car discovered near Cantley’s Dacey Mine, moved it near the tugboat and filled it with rocks from the mine’s former entrance. The plaque tells of the mine car and Cantley’s significant mining heritage – its mines and their minerals.

 

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