Neat Facts About Little Lake

Thanks to our friends at Parks Canada, below are some interesting facts about Little Lake...

1. Adam Scott built a sawmill and grist-mill in 1818 on the south edge of Little Lake and the settlement of Scott’s Plains would eventually become Peterborough. Lock 19 in Peterborough is named after Adam Scott (Scott's Mills).

R.B. Rogers, pictured in the dark jacket near the centre, with his team.

2. Richard Birdsall Rogers—the designer of the Peterborough Lift Lock and former superintendent of the Trent Canal—is buried in the Little Lake Cemetery, and his gravestone faces the Lift Lock.

3. The 6 kilometre stretch between Little Lake and Nassau Mills (Lock 22) is a man-made canal, constructed along with the Peterborough Lift Lock from 1896 to 1904.

4. The Trent Canal and the Otonabee River run parallel to each other, encircling East City and making it a small island. The two rivers meet in Little lake and at Trent University.

Centennial Fountain construction

5. Centennial Fountain, built in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s 100th anniversary, shoots water 76 meters (250 feet) into the air on Little Lake. It is the highest jet fountain in Canada.

Musicfest

6. Peterborough Musicfest, held at Del Crary Park on Little Lake, is a Top 100 festival in Ontario.

7. Up until 2004, each night of Peterborough Summer Festival of Lights (what is now known as Musicfest) included fireworks and a boat light show.

8. The Otonabee River drops 144 feet between Little Lake and Lake Katchewanooka in Lakefield.

9. Historians believe that while travelling with the Hurons, Samuel de Champlain would have put his canoe in and launched from Little Lake, accessing Huronia via Rice Lake and the Trent River.

10. Recreational fishermen can catch bass, walleye, perch, and Muskie in Little Lake.

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Groovy Retro Fun: Look At These 1970s Pictures From The Peterborough Zoo

The Seventies were groovy in so many ways—and that included all the fun times at the Riverview Park & Zoo in Peterborough where their playground and exhibits—from monkey bars to monkeys—have been a hit for decades. Thanks to the zoo for digging into their archives to provide us with these...

The original totem pole was erected in 1973 (its replacement went up in 2016)...

Love these wheels in the parking lot...

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Peterborough Petes Are Doing Throwback Game Set In 1956, Includes 15 Cent Hotdogs

On Tuesday, November 8th—exactly 60 years to the day of the first ever OHA game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre—the Peterborough Petes will recreate the 1956 hockey game night experience, wearing replica 1956 T.P.T Petes uniforms. They will be playing against the Niagara IceDogs, who will be wearing St. Catharines Teepees throwback jerseys.

Throwback Petes jersey

The game will be a near-exact replica of a 1956 hockey experience, including:
 
-> 15 cent hotdogs (limit of two per ticket, while supplies last)
-> Special ticket discount: anyone born in 1956 or earlier can purchase a regular bowl ticket for $10
-> Anyone born on November 8, 1956 who has a ticket to the game will receive a free, autographed T.P.T. Petes replica ringer T-shirt
-> Rinkboards removed
-> 1950s music and live organ throughout game
-> Free Tide laundry detergent sample giveaway (on November 8th, 1956, the Petes gave away Lux Liquid dish detergent)
-> Remembrance Day ceremonies in recognition of Peterborough Memorial Centre, which was named in honour of veterans
-> Peterborough 534 Raider Air Cadet Squadron anthem performance
& much much more!

Tickets are still available for the November 8th throwback game—including special $10 1956 tickets—by visiting the Peterborough Memorial Centre Box Office online, in person, or by phoning 705.743.3561.

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A Time Capsule From 1864 Was Opened At Peterborough County Court House

On Friday (August 19th), a time capsule from 1864 sealed in a large glass jar was removed from the site of the Peterborough County Court House—which began construction that same year.

To put this in perspective, at the time this capsule was put in place, John A. McDonald and George-Étienne Cartier were discussing Confederation and the birth of our nation (1867).

Items from the time capsule.

The items in the time capsule will be catalogued and researched with the intent to create a display at the Peterborough County Courthouse.

The time capsule was placed under the cornerstone of the internal jail cell structure in 1864 and was discovered after County staff undertook to find it based on research of the site and assistance from local residents and historians.

Left to right: Daryl Bennett – Mayor, City of Peterborough; Basia Baklinski – Conservator, Lang Pioneer Village Museum; Jeff Leal – MPP Peterborough

The jar was carefully removed from the site and opened by a Conservator from Lang Pioneer Village Museum, Basia Baklinski—along with Warden J. Murray Jones, MPP Jeff Leal and Mayor Daryl Bennett.

Left to right: Jeff Leal – MPP Peterborough; Joe Taylor – Deputy Warden, Peterborough County; Daryl Bennett – Mayor, City of Peterborough

Items inside the capsule included coins, Minutes of Peterborough County Council, The Peterborough Examiner dated June 9, 1864, photos and other documents.

A new time capsule at the site will be placed there in 2017 for our future generations to learn about this era.

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15 Neat Facts About The Construction Of The Peterborough Lift Lock

1. The Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway—aka Lock 21—was built between 1896 and 1904 in an era when the strength of people, horse and steam power was shaping the transportation systems of a growing nation.

Opening Day: July 9th, 1904

2. The Lift Lock was part of a larger construction project to canalize the Otonabee River—allowing the Kawartha Lakes to connect with Peterborough's commercial centre.

3. To establish the foundations for the Lift Lock at Armour Hill during construction, 76,000 cubic yards of sand, soil and gravel were excavated until the limestone bedrock was reached 40 feet down.

4. The presswells for the hydraulic rams were excavated a further 75 feet into the rock.

5. A foundation of granite blocks—some weighing a whopping ten tons—was lowered to the bottom to provide a footing for the rams.

6. When completed, over 26,000 cubic yards of Portland cement had been poured, without a single piece of *reinforcing steel.

7. The Lift Lock was at the time the largest structure ever built in the world with unreinforced Portland cement. To compress the Portland cement, Rogers employed hundreds of hand-held air driven compactors.

8. The installation of the steel chambers and hydraulic rams by Dominion Bridge Company of Montreal began in 1901 and was completed in 1904.

9. The original steelwork is still in use today, modified by zinc refinishing and welding on the boat chambers. (New aluminum gates were added during the mid-60s.)

10. Peterborough's Richard Birdsall Rogers (aka R.B. Rogers)—a civil and mechanical engineer from Peterborough who studied at McGill—oversaw the design and construction of the Lift Lock.

RB Rogers, pictured in the dark jacket near the centre, with his team of engineers.

11. As originally built, the Lift Lock could generate all the necessary compressed air and water pumping pressure to operate the gate pivot engine, gate water seals and control systems by opening a water penstock set in the lock's upper reach.

Lift Lock nearing completion, 1903

12. The natural gravity fall of water powered the lock's internal machinery. This included a Taylor hydraulic air compressor, water turbines, water driven gate-engines and pumps.

13. The dual lifts are the highest hydraulic boat lifts in the world, with a lift of 19.8 m (65 ft).

14. The Lift Lock opened July 9th, 1904 to a huge crowd (see photo at top of post).

15. The Lift Lock, which was designated a National Historic Site in 1979, took eight years to construct.

*In the era of construction, the use of reinforcing steel was only just beginning, and the technique was viewed with professional skepticism.

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Timeless Message From 1928 For Peterborough About Buying Local & Believing In Your City

This historical message about Buying Local below is powerful stuff.

"Someone dropped it off to the Chamber," Stu Harrison, CEO of the Peterborough Chamber, tells PTBOCanada. "It's from the 1928 Peterborough Examiner. Apparently it ran several time during the months of March and April that year. A timeless message, 88 years old."

"I have seen things like this," Peterborough historian Elwood Jones tells PTBOCanada. "There were several Buy Local campaigns in the 1920s and 1930s. It may have been a joint venture with the Chamber of Commerce, downtown businesses and the city. We have a scrapbook at Trent Valley Archives, and I think it is in there too."

So yes, in 1928 supporting the Peterborough business community and the entrepreneurial/community spirit was vital—as it is today. Bring it Team Peterborough. It's in our DNA to collaborate and support each other.

Check this out... A very cool #LoveLocalPTBO message from the 1928 @PtboExaminer! #TeamPtbo pic.twitter.com/d9FT2oVeah

— Peterborough Chamber (@ptbochamber) February 17, 2016

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These Retro Peterborough Police Car Pictures Are Pure Awesome

Thanks to Lauren Gilchrist, Media Relations and Communications Coordinator from Peterborough Police Service, for digging these gems from the police archives for us.

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