The Empire of the St. Lawrence

Creighton, D. G.

doi:10.3138/9781442659889

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Both Lower () and Creighton () place rivers as central to the nation as we know it, as they have “drawn together regions that are separated by major features of Canada's geology” (Lower , 7). Working in the Laurentian tradition, Hugh MacLennan's (, 4) writing on Canadian rivers makes the same point: “Without the rivers, the early nation could never have survived.” His books Seven Rivers of Canada (1961) and Rivers of Canada () started as a series of articles for Maclean's that showcased the importance of the rivers for both the development and character of the nation.…”

Section: Waterways and The Quest For A Canadian Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both Lower (1991) and Creighton (1956) place rivers as central to the nation as we know it, as they have "drawn together regions that are separated by major features of Canada's geology" (Lower 1991, 7). Working in the Laurentian tradition, Hugh MacLennan's (1961, 4) writing on Canadian rivers makes the same point: "Without the rivers, the early nation could never have survived."…”

Section: The Laurentian Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Embodied heritage on the French River: Canoe routes and colonial history

Erickson

2015

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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In 1985, Ontario's French River was designated one of the inaugural Canadian Heritage Rivers by the Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS), highlighting the important natural and cultural heritage of the French River to the Canadian nation. Specifically, the designation noted the role the French River played in the fur trade as a major link between the port of Montreal and the trading posts of the interior. Important to the CHRS is the ability to recreationally experience the French River by canoe, replicating the voyageur mode of travel. The connection between landscape, colonial heritage, and recreational vehicles is emblematic of a particular historiographic reading of Canadian rivers that celebrates the land of the nation as an encounter with the nation's origins. In this heritage production, the tangled politics of colonialism, particularly the dynamics of the fur trade, are elided in the celebration of the nation as emerging from the landscape—not the social and political history of that landscape. By promoting this heritage through the embodied experience of a canoe trip, heritage promotion on the French risks reading history through a very limited lens, thus missing the value of understanding the historical geography of the French River as a contested space.

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Section: Waterways and The Quest For A Canadian Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Laurentian Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied heritage on the French River: Canoe routes and colonial history

Erickson

2015

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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“…Donald Creighton described the prior transformation of the Saint Lawrence River as a binding element for new economies of fur and trade, penetrating the heart of a continent and inspiring a common identity for its scattered people. 10 The Saint Lawrence River way meant access to immense land and resources. It represented possibilities, common ground, and abundance.…”

Section: Pre-1842 Explorers/trappersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating the Waters

Parker

2014

The Journal of Transport History

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The transition from canoe to steamship on the remote Skagit and Nooksack Rivers in Washington Territory occurred in a brief period of settlement in the nineteenth century. Diaries and historical accounts from the Pacific Northwest describe settlers' perceptions of mobility derived from communities they had left in their journey west. As they confronted an indigenous mode of travel rooted in place, they adapted and then usurped the canoe, bringing steamships to the Skagit and then Nooksack River. Steamship travel required a complex infrastructure of cleared rivers, supply chains, mechanical knowledge and observational navigation, linking travelers with a larger, regional network. The advent of steamships triggered significant environmental changes to the riverine landscape and the broader region.

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“…Its privileged geographical setting was a fundamental reason for the original establishment by the French of a port at Montréal in 1642, and it has been widely suggested, by early civic promoters and economic historians alike, that one only need to ‘glance at the map to appreciate the secret of Montreal's commercial pre‐eminence' (Chambers 1903, 83; Leacock 1963; Creighton 1970). Indeed, Montréal was closer to European ports than any of its major competitors: 2,760 nautical miles to Liverpool, compared to 2,861 from Boston, 3,043 from New York and 3,335 from Baltimore.…”

Section: Conceptualising Waterfront (Re)developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead of performing another costly physical reconstruction of the canal, the speed limit was repeatedly increased: to 6.4 km/hour in 1895 and to 9.6 km/hour by 1924. When the canal was first opened, the trip from Montréal to Kingston (about 280 km) by bateau or Durham boat took about twelve days; however, by the early decades of the twentieth century, a 2,500‐ton bulk carrier (sixty times the capacity of the Durham boat) could make the return trip from Montréal to Chicago (about 4,000 km), fully loaded both ways, in similar time (Montreal Harbour Commissioners, Annual Reports , 1830–1880; Keefer 1850; Young 1859; Kingsford 1865; Tombs 1926; Tulchinsky 1960; Creighton 1970; Bergeron et al 1983; Willis 1983; Desloges and Gelly 2002).…”

Section: Port Morphogenesis: Redimensioning the Urban Vascular Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Muddy shore to modern port: redimensioning the Montréal waterfront time‐space

Gilliland¹

2004

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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For Montréal in the nineteenth century, as for most port cities, the waterfront served as the primary interface between the city and the markets of the world. This paper examines how and why the primitive waterfront of Montréal as of 1830 was repeatedly adapted and transformed into a modern port district by 1914. Beyond a detailed examination of the set of physical changes on the waterfront, this paper draws theoretical insights from geographical interpretations of the rhythm of capital accumulation to explore the formative and adaptive processes underlying waterfront redevelopment. Global innovations in transport and cargo‐handling technology are recognised as the preconditions for the periodic redimensioning of the port of Montréal, and it is established that these changes were driven by the perennial demands of local investors to accelerate circulation and thus reduce the turnover time of capital. This paper offers a new perspective on waterfront development by conceptualising the entire port as a comprehensive circulatory system and then exploring the redevelopment of various components in relation to others. The findings indicate that massive increases in traffic—the number and size of ships—through the port were correlated with the redimensioning of all of the connected components of the circulatory system; that is, the major arteries such as the St Lawrence River ship channel, as well as the smaller capillaries like finger piers.

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The Empire of the St. Lawrence

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Embodied heritage on the French River: Canoe routes and colonial history

Embodied heritage on the French River: Canoe routes and colonial history

Negotiating the Waters

Muddy shore to modern port: redimensioning the Montréal waterfront time‐space

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