Cantley's 1889 Articles in The Echo of Cantley

The Chelsea Dam and Generating Station, 1926 and before

Margaret Phillips

The Gatineau River’s Chelsea Dam and its hydroelectric generating station are clearly seen from Parc Mary- Anne-Phillips across Baie du Fer à Cheval (Horseshoe Bay) bridging the Cantley and Chelsea shores. This summer, for the first time, Hydro-Québec is offering tours of the red brick generating station to mark its centennial. Operations have been modernized over time but, incredibly, the generating station continues to function in similar ways as it did in 1926 when built. The building itself remains unchanged so is an important example of our living heritage.

The tour is excellent. Guides explain how electricity is generated and can answer questions like why the Gatineau River water levels in spring are low in Cantley while at such dangerously high flood levels in Gatineau. Asked why it was named the Chelsea Generating Station when its address is in Cantley, our guide was not so sure. Knowing the dam’s historical impact could enrich the tour. Hopefully this article will help.

Between 1924 and 1932, four massive hydroelectric projects were built on the Gatineau River to provide power for the world’s largest paper producer, the Canadian International Paper Company (CIP): the Rapides-Farmer and Chelsea dams and power stations within Cantley’s original borders, the Paugan in Low and the Mercier north of Maniwaki. The Gatineau Power Company was established to build and operate these hydroelectric power stations.

The Chelsea and Rapides-Farmer dams and power stations were both built between 1925 and 1927. A two- kilometre-long log chute was constructed between them along the Cantley shore so that logs floating downstream would bypass both dams. Construction camps with houses and dining halls were built near each project for hundreds of workers. Some local people were hired, although the company believed that farmers did not know how “to work steadily”. The nearby Foley farm, at today’s Parc Mary-Anne-Phillips, was required to store company equipment in one of its barns and provide a room and board for workers building the Chelsea Dam project.

In the winter of 1927, the dams began permanently flooding the Gatineau River, dramatically affecting riverside communities like Cantley. To prepare, railway tracks and roads were relocated above the flood line. Short notice was given to owners of 150 farms along the Chelsea and Cantley shores. Their farms would either be partially or totally flooded by the summer of 1927. The impact on families was devastating. Not only their homes but their productive farm fields, trees and mines disappeared underwater. Decades later, diver Robert Grenier discovered a small mica mine deep in the river along with remains of its lockers, lunch boxes and mining gear.

The Chelsea Dam and Generating Station were built together on the highest part of the 20-acre Chelsea Island and over existing rapids and a waterfall. During the 19 th century logging era, the island was Gilmours’ Mills, a village with lumber mills, stores and homes for about 250 people. The waterfall, then named High Falls, powered the town’s mills until the 1890s when logging operations ended. Its houses were later rented as cottages and the island and falls were renamed Chelsea Island and Chelsea Falls. After 1922, the cottages were used as homes for employees building the Chelsea Generating Station. For workers at Rapides-Farmer, houses, bath facilities and a large dining hall were built directly across Route 307 in the vacant field there today.

Standing outside the Chelsea Generating Station looking downstream was most poignant for me. Seeing the remaining southern tip of the historic Chelsea Island below me, with the narrow river rushing alongside steep rocky cliffs, was like witnessing the river as it might have been centuries ago, and long before then.