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The First Tay Canal in the Rideau Corridor, 1830-1850 
Part of our Resources for the Rideau series, this digital book is a reprint of Parks Canada's Microfiche Report 142, "The First Tay Canal in the Rideau Corridor, 1830-1850" by Larry Turner, 1984.The first Tay Canal was constructed by the Tay Navigation Company between 1831 and 1834. Five small scale and cheaply constructed locks were erected on the Tay River between Perth and Port Elmsley before the river opened into Lower Rideau Lake. Circumstances surrounding the planning, financing, building and use of the Tay Canal are detailed in this report. The building of the first Tay Canal also emphasized the extensive nature of the mercantile hinterland of Montreal. While the Tay was a remarkably cheap and limited waterway it helped consolidate commercial trade within the area. However, the limited resources of the Tay watershed and a receding frontier left Perth Landing a town and country trade neither conducive to expansion nor sufficient to sustain a declining branch canal. The fortunes of the Tay Canal rose and fell with the fortunes of Perth. This study was a concentrated effort to compile information on the Tay Canal and Tay Navigation Company as well as to determine its role within the local as well as the wider framework of commercial pursuits in the period between 1830 and 1850. Included are 32 illustrations (maps, diagrams and photos). As a bonus in this digital edition, the first detailed article about the Tay Canal: “The First Tay Canal, An Abortive Upper Canada Transportation Enterprise of a Century Ago” by H.R. Morgan, 1933, has also been included. This digital book will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about this interesting bit of Rideau history. The document is heavily cited and endnoted, the sources (mostly Library and Archives Canada) clearly detailed. This report section of this digital book is fully searchable text (not page scans) that duplicates the original manuscript report. It is provided on a CD-ROM, in PDF format, easily read by the free Adobe PDF Reader. Most computers already have a PDF reader installed, but if not, you can easily obtain the reader from the Adobe website. Rideau Manuscript Report Digitization Project page.
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