A few weekends ago, the weather was gorgeous out, I, singer/songwriter, James Hardiment, decided to take a stroll along the Waterfront Trail, in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. I started by parking my car down in the dog park near the Power Dam on Second St. close to the river, just outside an area of town, known as Riverdale. Riverdale is a lovely neighbourhood, with lots of beautiful houses, and greenery, playgrounds, and parks, throughout.
The Moses-Saunders Power Dam, is a dam that is situated between Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, and Massena, New York, USA. It provides hydroelectric power to both Canada, and the United States, with a generating station on each side of the border, for the respective nations supply. The dam is located on the St. Lawrence River, which is a river that splits the 2 North American countries apart with its deep, strong current, liquid divide.
Built between 1954 and 1958, the power station was part of a larger St. Lawrence Seaway Project. More than 6,500 people had to be relocated to construct the dam, and new towns emerged just outside of Cornwall. Places such as Ingleside, and Long Sault are examples of this. The people were forced to relocate, as they dammed the river, and created Lake St. Lawrence all those years ago. There have been many economic advantages to this project, including shipping, and trade opportunities as a result of the infrastructure put in place to allow cargo ships to safely passage down the river to do their trade. Things such as the locks and dams helped to pave the way for the large vessels to pass through.
The Power Dam Visitor Centre isn’t too far away from the dam, just follow the bike trails along the river and the signage should take you there.
Pictured: The Moses-Saunders Power Dam, as seen from the Cornwall, Ontario, Canada side. Behind where I’m stood is the visitor centre.
Pictured: The visitor centre building from around the back, quite a modern structure, inside is a really interesting museum, filled with historical images, as well as interactive games. The games show you how challenging the work, that goes into keeping a power station running, can be.
Pictured: It looks like they are doing some developments close to the visitor centre as well. New structures, as well as pathways and landscaping is being done as of writing this article.
The visitor centre is all connected to the Waterfront Trail, which runs along Cornwalls waterfront (if you follow my blog I’ve mentioned this before). The trail is actually part of a much larger network that goes from Sault Ste. Marie, all the way to the Quebec border! I have wanted to attempt some of this trail, as a kid I pretty much did the stuff around Cornwall. I also went up to Ottawa and did a lot of their trails too, but that is a different network.
As of writing this, it might have been a week ago at this point, but I had noticed a lot of fallen trees on the pathways in Cornwall. Hopefully they have been cleared up by now, if not I’m sure they will be eventually. We had had some pretty rough weather lately, and strong gusts of wind, which brought them down to the ground. It was easy enough to get around them, for the most part, on foot anyways. As a cyclist it might be a bit more tricky! I’ll be getting my bicycle out again soon enough.
Pictured: A downed tree, close by to the Power Dam Visitor Centre. I was able to get around it on the right. Hoping that it’s cleared up by now! Mother Nature amazes me, her power is unthinkable sometimes.
If I do get the bike out, I think I’m gonna film some videos on it, show portions of the trails perhaps, I’m still undecided. I notice there is a thing called Slow TV in Europe, where they just play randomly long videos, boat cruise down a river, or a bus on a trip. Perhaps grab a Go-Pro or team up with someone with some type of mountable camera to a helmet or bicycle. If anyone wants to join me on that project let me know! We could easily blur faces of anyone that passes by too. There’s plenty of ways to get in touch, on social media. My links to all my socials, and email, are all below. Feel free to comment, like, and share this article too. I appreciate your feedback greatly. If you’d like to learn more about the Power Dam Visitor Centre you can visit their website below:
https://www.opg.com/building-strong-and-safe-communities/our-communities/eastern-ontario/saunders-visitor-centre/
According to their website, the centre will reopen for the season in May 2023. I look forward to visiting them again when they do, I also encourage you to as well at home!
Got to catch up on the blog a bit, until the next one!
James