Sarah Williams
Beaver Staff
Jim Brownell of the Lost Villages Historical Society will be visiting Napanee on June 18 to deliver his talk “The Creation of the Lost Villages of the St. Lawrence Seaway” starting at 7 p.m. at the Lennox & Addington County Museum and Archives.
Without giving too much away, the talk will be about the towns and hamlets that were purposefully flooded in 1958 to create the St. Lawrence Seaway.
In anticipation of this event, Brownell, who has served intermittently since 1992 as president of the Lost Village Society, took some time to speak with the Napanee Beaver.
Brownell will be coming from the Long Sault region to deliver his talk, an area where approximately 6,500 displaced people settled after the flooding of the seaway enveloped their homes.
Long Sault is also home to the Lost Villages Museum, which boasts 10 heritage buildings.
Having been inspired by his father who “knew this was going to be a turning point in the history of Canada, let alone Ontario,” Brownell has infectious enthusiasm for this landmark event.
With his mother’s family from Mille Roches and his father’s family form Moulinette, two of the lost villages, Brownell has a personal connection to the flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
“People hear that entire villages were completely wiped off the face of the earth and they can’t imagine that. They hear about it happening in other countries, but this happened in our own, local area,” said Brownell, when speaking about the hidden stories that people are becoming more eager to unearth.
“The Creation of the Lost Villages” promises to be an interesting and edifying talk. Admission is $3 and tickets are available at the door.
For information on this particular event, visit www.CountyMuseum.ca.
If you are curious about the lost villages themselves, www.lostvillages.ca.
The talk is part of the L&A County Museum’s ongoing Tuesday Night at the Museum series of guest speakers.