This fonds consists of photocopies of 43 interview transcripts of residents of the Trent Valley area. The interviews were conducted by Daniel Francis under contract, in 1979, to Parks Canada and focus on such themes as transportation, commerce, settlement, tourism, and resource development. They relate to the section of the Trent-Severn waterway stretching from the mouth of the Otonabee River to Bobcaygeon.
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- In 1835, a proposal to build a navigable water route from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay was submitted to Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant Governor, by civil engineer Nicol Hughe Baird. It was believed that if a link could be established between the many scattered settlements, the population would increase, and new markets would be created. With numerous arguments for and against the building of the Trent Canal, the project was begun, and was to take many separate projects over a period of almost one hundred years to complete. It was not until 1920 that the final link of the canal was completed, and water travel was made possible all the way from Trenton to Port Severn, a distance of 386 km. Although the original purpose of the building of the Canal had been to bring supplies to people living along its waterways, and to provide an outlet for timber, by the time the Canal was completed so many years later, the automobile and better roads and railways had been introduced and the original function of the Canal had changed. It has since become a famous route for recreational travel for thousands of people.