Upper Canada Pioneer Village

On Thursday we travelled south of Ottawa to the St Lawrence River (which feeds out of the Great Lakes and heads off to the Atlantic.) We went to a little place called Upper Canada where they've set up a working pioneer village. When they dammed the St Lawrence River back in the 50s for hydro electricity and to make the river more navigable by big ships they relocated a lot of the old pioneer buildings and artefacts from the area that was to be flooded to a new area. They've maintained it as a proper working village and farm using all the old methods. The people running the place all dress up in period costume, working the farm and the industries such as gardening, wool scouring, carding and weaving, flour milling, timber milling, baking, tin smithing etc. all using the old methods. During summer they have camps for school kids there, where they all dress in period costume, go to old time school and get involved in doing things the way the pioneers did.

The flour mill is run by an old woodfired steam engine. They bake and sell their own bread using the wholegrain flour from the mill. Very nice. The timber mill and wollen mill are run by water power.

We had a great day looking around all the exhibits and seeing how they lived and worked in the old days.


Timber Mill in Action


Sophie Watching Basket Weaving


Jordy in Period Costume


Stage Coach


The Flour Mill


Communing With the Horses


Bringing in the Hay