Waterway to the Bras D’Or
St. Peter’s Canal was intended to increase trade to the United States
St. Peter’s Canal was intended to increase trade to the United States.
The St. Peter’s Canal was a vital piece of infrastructure that was intended to increase trade between the United States and industrial Cape Breton.
Historically, the space that is now the canal was originally used by the Mi’kmaq to portage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Bras d’Or Lake. They used this point to access all parts of their disbursed territory, making it a vital part of transportation.
In the 1630s French merchants from La Rochelle France built a small fort on the site. The French entered into a fur trade with the Mi’kmaq. To facilitate the movement of furs the portage trail was transformed into a haulover, which is a kind of road that people used to pull ships across the isthmus either by hand or with oxen.
After Cape Breton was annexed to Nova Scotia in 1820, the merchants of Isle Madame sought to reach markets in the United States and around the Bras d’Or Lakes. The route to Sydney via the ocean meant that ships would have to travel around the dangerous Scatterie Island, so the merchants proposed a shorter route. If a canal was dug at the St Peter’s haulover, the route to Sydney would not only be safer, but I would also be 70 km closer.
In 1825 Francis Hall, an engineer, reported that a 2,700-foot canal that was 21 feet wide and 13 feet deep could be constructed for $68,000. In 1840 an Act was passed incorporating the St Peter’s Canal Company but the endeavour had trouble attracting private investment. Most investors felt that the railroad’s arrival was imminent and that would negate the need for a canal.
In 1850 Charles W. Fairbanks, a civil engineer, visited the area and offered this report to the October 5th edition of the Cape Breton News.
“Having lately surveyed the isthmus at St Peter’s in order to find some mode by which the communication between the Bras d’Or Lake and St. Peter’s Bay might be effected with less expense and more ease…. A large bog of soft moss and mud render a portion of the excavation extremely cheap and easy; on further examination and by using boring tools some rock may be found which would increase the expense of the canal. I consider that the sum of 10,000 pounds should defray all the expenses of making a canal through the isthmus at St. Peters; including in the above sum the cost of excavation, a tide lock, guard gates, and draw bridge. Spring tides in St Peter’s Bay rise about two feet above the level of the water in the lake; neap tides are level with the lake; and low water at spring tides will be about four feet below the surface of the Lake. The tide in the Bras d’Or lake rises and falls about twelve inches.”
Eventually the province took over the project and in 1854 they hired 200 men to clear brush and trees from the route. Yet again, however, there were delays and the mainland politicians in Halifax called a halt to the project.
By 1864, the local population pushed forward for the canal and they were heard. The canal’s route was not as easy as was previously indicated. It entailed cutting through a solid granite hill for most of the Canal’s 800 metres. The removal was done by hand with blasting. It was a long, labour-intensive project that suffered rock falls.
Mr. Fairbanks claimed: “The people all around the lake, I am informed would be most willingly contribute a very large sum in labour and materials in aid of the undertaking. Much may be done in this way, for labour is money. The legislature of the province might be induced to advance the interest on the money required and receive the polis produced by the work until they exceed the interest on the sum advanced in id of the work.”
Eventually, the project was completed in 1869, a full 49 years after its proposal. Unfortunately, the size of ship soon outgrew the width of the canal and it had to be enlarged once from 1875 to 1881 and a second time from 1912 to 1917.
The arrival of the railroad on the western half of the island and eventually through St Peter’s had a negative impact on the viability of the canal. The through traffic slowed and the canal was eventually purchased by the Canadian government and added to the Intercolonial railway transportation network. The canal remains open today and is mostly used by pleasure craft.
Vanessa Childs Rolls is a local historian who lives in Sydney. Her column appears monthly in the Cape Breton Post. She can be contacted at Childsrolls@gmail.com.