Ottawa Valley

The Ottawa Valley is the valley surrounding the Ottawa River for the west-east portion of its path through the Canadian Shield from Mattawa to Hawkesbury. Because of the surrounding shield, the valley is narrow at its western end, then becomes increasingly wide (mainly on the southern Ontario side of the river) as it progresses eastward. Approximately 1.3 million people reside in the valley (and along its tributaries), of these the majority, around 80% reside in Ottawa, the remainder on the north side of the Ottawa river, in Quebec. The Greater Ottawa area has just over 1.1 million inhabitants in both provinces. The valley is one of the few parts of Canada which is truly bilingual.

Near the city of Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley merges with the St. Lawrence Valley to the south to create a delta of flat farmland stretching unbroken from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence River as far east as the island of Montreal, where the two rivers meet. This area is sometimes referred to as the "Lower Ottawa Valley", in contrast with the "Upper Ottawa Valley" west of Ottawa, but the name is not common, and most people think of the Ottawa Valley only as the upper portion.

Because the Canadian Shield comes nearly to the Ottawa River on the north (Quebec) side of the valley, most settlements and transportation routes are on the southern Ontario side. From west to east, the major Ottawa Valley communities are Mattawa, Deep River (with nearby Chalk River, the site of Canada's nuclear reactor program), Petawawa (a major Canadian military base), Pembroke (where Samuel de Champlain landed briefly), Renfrew, Arnprior, Ottawa (the nation's capital), Rockland, L'Orignal, Hawkesbury and Rigaud.

History

After the arrival of European settlers in North America, the first major industry of the Ottawa Valley was fur trading. The valley was part of the major cross-country route for French-Canadian Voyageurs, who would paddle canoes up the Ottawa River as far as Mattawa and then portage west through various rivers and lakes to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Later, lumber became the valley's major industry, and it is still important in the far western part where the valley is narrow and little farmland is available. Today, the vast majority of the valley's residents live at its eastern end in Ottawa and its suburbs, where government and technology are major industries.

In the 1995 Quebec secession vote, two thirds of the Ottawa Valley Québecois voted against secession.

Language

English and French are both commonly spoken throughout the Ottawa Valley on both sides of the river. Regional English accents are rare in Canada, but because of its isolation (before the arrival of the railways) and also through the mixture of the dominant French, Irish and Scottish populations, the valley at one time developed a distinctive dialect referred to as the Ottawa Valley Twang. Many traces of it can still be heard today, especially in the valley's more isolated western portions.

Tourism

Tourism has become one of the main industries of the Ottawa Valley, after the bust in the timber industry. Pursuits such as skydiving, whitewater rafting, camping, biking, canoeing, driving, hot air ballooning, ATV'ing, golfing and hiking draw visitors from all over Canada and abroad. (Source: Canadian Geographic)

Facts

The Ottawa Valley covers over 7,645 km²
Glaciers retreated from what is now the Ottawa Valley region 12,800 years ago, leaving the area covered by the Champlain Sea for thousands of years. Ten thousand years ago the water retreated and land emerged.
More than half of the Ottawa Valley is wilderness.
Prescott and Russell County, in the Ottawa Valley, is, by percentage, the most francophone census division in Canada west of Quebec.
Renfrew County, also in the Ottawa Valley, is the largest county in Ontario. (outside of "districts", administrative regions in Northern Ontario).
There are over 900 lakes and four major river systems in the Ottawa Valley.
More than 400 species of animals live in the Ottawa Valley.
The white trillium, which grows throughout the Ottawa Valley, has been Ontario's provincial floral emblem since 1937. Its white blossom is associated with peace and hope.
The Ottawa River is 1,271 kilometres long.
The most likely source of the Ottawa River is Lac des Outaouais in Quebec.
The Ottawa River was first navigated and settles by the Huron, Algonquin, Iroquois and Outaouais people.
The Algonquin people called the Ottawa River “Kitchissippi”, which means “Great River”.
The Algonquin word Kichesippirini means "Big River People".
The name Petawawa comes from the Algonquin language meaning “where one hears a noise like this.”
The mixture of the accents of the Valley’s French, Irish and Scottish populations created a regional dialect that came to be called the Ottawa Valley Twang, which is still alive today.
White pine was the timber of choice for loggers during the Ottawa Valley’s logging boom in the early 19th century.
Winter was the best season for cutting timber as trees fell more easily when their sap wasn’t running and ice and snow made it easier to drag the timber. Spring was the season when the loggers would “drive” the logs downriver.
Samuel de Champlain spent the years between 1613 and 1615 traveling the Ottawa River with Algonquin and Huron guides. In charting the new land Champlain inaugurated the route that would be used by French fur traders for the next 200 years.
Between 1847 and 1879 a “horse railway” was used to portage passengers from the Ottawa River steamboat in a horse-drawn car for 5.5 kilometres along the wooded shore, around Chat Falls to another steamboat to continue their journey upriver.
For more facts, visit Canadian Geographic Online

External links

Welcome to the Ottawa Valley, a Canadian Geographic article about the valley
Ottawa River article at Great Canadian Rivers