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Cataraqui River

Landforms of Kingston, OntarioRivers of Frontenac CountyTributaries of Lake Ontario
The lock at Lower Brewers nearing completion in 1831
The lock at Lower Brewers nearing completion in 1831

The Cataraqui River ( KAT-ə-ROK-way) forms the lower portion of the Rideau Canal and drains into Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario. The name is taken from the original name for Kingston, Ontario; its exact meaning, however, is undetermined. Early maps showed several name variations including the Great Cataraqui River and Grand River Cataraquay. The river was once called Riviere de Frontenac, or Frontenac River. The alternate spelling "Cadaraqui" also appears in some historic texts.Prior to the Rideau Canal being built (1826 – 1832), the Cataraqui River had its headwaters in Dog and Loughborough lakes. It was a meandering creek, a 1795 map (by surveyor Lewis Grant) noted "a great number of rapids and Carrying Places on this creek." This changed with the building of the Rideau Canal. The Superintending Engineer of the project, Lt. Colonel John By, used a slackwater construction technique, building dams to drown rapids. In the area of the Cataraqui Creek from Upper Brewers to Kingston Mills he had the forests cut down to form a straight channel (this work is visible in the Burrowes paintings of Brewer's Lower Mill shown below). The area was then flooded in late 1831/early 1832 with the completion of canal dams at Kingston Mills, Lower Brewers and Upper Brewers. Today the watershed of the Cataraqui River includes lakes south of the watershed divide at Newboro, such as Sand, Opinicon, Clear and Newboro. However, in the pre-canal era, water from those lakes flowed into the White Fish River which drained to the Gananoque River rather than the Cataraqui River. The section between those two rivers was the Cranberry Flood Plain; the only water contribution from the White Fish River to the Cataraqui was in times of spring flood. This changed in the early 1800s with the building of a mill dam by Lemuel Haskins at White Fish Falls, near today's village of Morton. That dam retarded the outflow of the White Fish River to the Gananoque, backed it up over the Cranberry Flood Plain, sending water south to the Cataraqui River. To stop the escape of his mill water down Cataraqui Creek, Haskins built a second dam at the Round Tail (just north of Upper Brewers) which blocked the channel of the creek. These two dams made the Cataraqui Flood Plain navigable for the first time. When the Rideau Canal was built, Haskins' dam at Morton was enlarged and a new dam was built at Upper Brewers. Those two dams (managed today by Parks Canada) created Whitefish Lake, Little Cranberry Lake and much expanded Cranberry and Dog lakes. Most of the flow from what was previously the White Fish River watershed now flows down the Cataraqui River. The Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority administers water management concerns within the Cataraqui River watershed.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cataraqui River (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Cataraqui River
Waaban Crossing, Kingston

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Wikipedia: Cataraqui RiverContinue reading on Wikipedia

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N 44.2619 ° E -76.46725 °
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Waaban Crossing (Third Crossing)

Waaban Crossing
K7K 0C8 Kingston
Ontario, Canada
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The lock at Lower Brewers nearing completion in 1831
The lock at Lower Brewers nearing completion in 1831
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Anglin Bay

Anglin Bay is a small bay on the western shore of the Cataraqui River at Kingston, Ontario. It is a prominent feature of the Kingston, Ontario Inner Harbour. The bay was named for the Anglin Company whose offices, lumber yard and mill were continuously located on the shore of the bay from 1865 to 1999. The S. Anglin Fuel Company was originally a timber company, incorporated in Kingston in 1865, which gradually worked its way through building materials and lumber, coal, and oil as home heating fuels changed over the years. Timber was originally transported by the Cataraqui River, and later by the Kingston and Pembroke Railway, a now-defunct Canadian Pacific line. Robert Anglin (1806–1874) was a Common Councilman for the Town of Kingston in 1843, at the same time that John A. Macdonald was an Alderman on the Town Council. He had emigrated from County Cork, Ireland to Kingston in 1829, leaving Ireland with his wife on his wedding day. His sons W. B. and S. Anglin established the Anglin company as a sawmill at Wellington and Bay streets, at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, employing 23 people by 1850. Coal was soon added as a sideline, gradually displaced by fuel oil from 1953 onward. Anglin once handled a quarter million tons a year of heating and industrial coal and operated substantial lumber, drydock and shipbuilding facilities. In the 1950s, a custom carpentry shop employed 60-70 workers. The last Anglin lumber was sold in 1979. The company remained within the Anglin family until 1997. Its successor, heating company Tri-Heat Anglin Energy Supply, moved to its current Counter Street location (now John Counter Boulevard) in 1999. It was acquired in the early 2000s by local competitor Rosen Fuels and operated as Rosen TriHeat Anglin Fuels until 2012, ultimately becoming Rosen Energy Group. Other industrial occupants included Canadian Dredge and Dock, whose scows and dredges joined the wharves, quays, and buildings along the rail lines. The facilities expanded as landfill into the harbour. Various shipwrecks remain visible in Anglin Bay; many of these ships belonged to the former Montreal Transportation Company shipyard at the entrance to Anglin Bay or to Canada Steamship Lines of Montreal. The industrial role of this waterfront area has diminished as railways have been removed from the Inner Harbour and waterfront, with much of the railway land used for Ontario Health Insurance Plan offices in the early 1980s.

Inner Harbour, Kingston
Inner Harbour, Kingston

Inner Harbour is a neighbourhood located in downtown Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The Inner Harbour district is bounded by Joseph Street to the north, Princess Street to the south, Division Street on the west and the Cataraqui River on the east. The area is within the King's Town District. The District is represented on Kingston City Council by Councillor Rob Hutchison for the 2010-14 term of office. The average family income for the area is $45,715 which is lower than the city average. The Inner Harbour area consists primarily of working-class families with commercial activity focused primarily along Princess and Queen Streets on the south side of the neighbourhood. In the past the demographics of the Inner Harbour in addition to other north Kingston neighbourhoods contributed to local negativity toward living "north of Princess". The term refers to areas located on the north side of Princess Street, which is the main east–west thoroughfare through Kingston, and runs the length of the city as it is Highway 2 through town. In recent years the socio-demographic nature of this area has changed as increasing levels of gentrification and some studentification (the social and environmental changes caused by increasing numbers of post-secondary students living in a particular urban area) has taken place in some of these neighbourhoods. The areas proximity to downtown Kingston means it has many good examples of 19th century heritage buildings constructed of local limestone. It is also home to Leon's Centre, a large venue entertainment and sporting arena. The La Salle Causeway which enters the Inner Harbour neighbourhood at the foot of Ontario Street is also the main link between Kingston and its eastern suburbs. It consists of three bridges, one of which is a lift bridge allowing boats access to the Cataraqui River, Inner Harbour and Rideau Canal system linking Kingston with Ottawa.