Steamboating on the Upper Ottawa

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted July, 2005

Plaque Location

The County of Renfrew
The Town of Laurentian Hills
In front of a museum, street number 35753
on the south side of Highway 17,
6.1 km east of Highway 635

Coordinates: N 46 10.087 W 77 37.236

Plaque Text

The first steamboat on the Upper Ottawa River was the 25 horse-power "Lady Colborne" built in 1833 for service between Aylmer and Chats Falls. Gradually other sections of the river where opened to steam navigation and in 1854 the "Pontiac" was launched to navigate the 65 km route between Pembroke and Rapides-des-Joachims. The "Pontiac", the first steamboat to ply in waters above Portage-du-Fort, was operated by the Union Forwarding Company which contributed to the rapid development of the Upper Ottawa as a lumbering region and tourist attraction. The steamboat gradually gave way to the railroad and by 1879 the Company (incorporated as The Union Forwarding and Railroad Company in 1859) had abandoned its passenger and freight traffic on the river.

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