The Ragged Rapids Dam and Power House - From George Page's notes- by Jim Page circa 1980s

The first supplies for work crews (40 to 50 men) were taken into Ragged Rapids in September 1898 by canoe from Severn Bridge.This meant long days, leaving-Ragged Rapids at 6A.M. and it would often be 11 P.M. before they got back.

They had to make two portages, at Sparrow Lake Chute and McDonalds Rapids, Sometimes the more venturesome would run the rapids, if they were lucky, it would save a lot of time and hard work.

On one occasion my father (George Page) paddled to Severn Bridge, the nearest rail point at that time, to meet bosses of the contracting Company and when they got back to Sparrow Lake it was very rough, and against the advice of my father, the other two men insisted on going across.

There was a quarter of beef in the.canoe as well as the three men. By the time they got half way across the lake one man was bailing water with his christy stiff and praying while the other two tried to keep the canoe from upsetting, but the canoe sank just as they got to shore.

Later on, a wooden dam was built at McDonalds Rapids to raise the water at Sparrow Lake Chute so they could get the boats and scows with supplies down as far as McDonalds Rapids. From there, they were transported by teams of horses to Ragged Rapids. Later when the water got too low, due to leakage in the dam at McDonalds Rapids, a new dam was built just above Ragged Rapids, called the Patriark dam, which allowed the boats and scows to come right to Ragged Rapids. In the winter the supplies were brought in by teams of horses across Eastern Lakes and then followed other small lakes and swamps to Sparrow lake, Severn Bridge and Washago.

The first dam and power house at Ragged was built and machinery installed and started to operate in I901, but due to high water in the spring of 1904 this dam went out. It was replaced by what they called the Battle dam, so named after the contractor who built it. It was built of 4 inch hemlock planks. This temporary dam enabled the power house to operate again and also provided a coffer dam for Quinlin and Robinson to construct a cement dam behind it.

This cement dam was designed by J.B.McRae of Ottawa and was the first dam of its kind with sluices to take off the spring floods and were operated by electric motors that would not freeze in the winter.

During one spring, the water was so high in the upper Severn that a small steamboat ran right across Bennets farm (penisula) and into Stantons bay. During spring breakup supplies had to be carried in on the mens backs from Sparrow Lake to Ragged. In many places there was over 6 inches across the road.

After the Powerhouse was built a road was made out the pole line to Orillia, a distance of 22 miles. At the end of December 1902 my mother and father, George Page and wife May (Blackwell) arrived back in Orillia, after spending their honeymoon in Toronto, to 16 inches of fresh snow…

Dad hired a team and cutter and started out for Ragged Rapids. The road wasn't too bad as far as Burnsides, at the end of the 6th concession, but from there on there was no sign of a track for the next 8 miles.

Dad tramped up one side of the hills and down the other to help the horses but by the time they got to the Big Gully, about a mile from Ragged, where they had to cross a bridge about 20 feet above the marsh, it was black dark.

The bridge had no sides on it, but they got across ok. The next morning, when he was returning the horses to Orillia the cutter tracks made the night before were within an inch of the side of the bridge.

In 1906 the railroad was built and after that they used to take supplies and people in by hand car.One night they went to Washago to get supplies and some people, including a girl to help Mother in the boarding house. Before they left Washago they asked the Agent if there were any trains expected that night and he said it was all clear. The supplies and twelve people piled on the hand car and started for Ragged.

They had just passed Port Stanton when a gravel train came along. They all jumped and tried to get the hand car clear of the track, but it was in a rockcut and they couldn't get it clear, so the train hit it and spread eggs, apples, potatoes, mail and baggage up the track.

The train crew picked them and took them on to Ragged but just after they got on the train it hit a bunch of cattle.It killed two and broke anothers leg. They found out later they belonged to Otto Roehl.

The Swift Rapids dam, powerhouse and locks were started in 1914, but the contractor went broke during the war and thelocks were never finished, so a marine railway was built to take boats over the dam.

The boat called the O.W.L. was ordered from Swartman boat builders in Waubaushene in 19I7, but wasn't delivered.until the spring of 19I8. It originally had a 50HP Buffalo inboard marine engine, but on, May14 I931 it was changed to a 65 HP Buchanan inboard.

The dam and powerhouse at Ragged was blown out with 4 ½ tons of dynamite in one blast in 1917. With a 40 foot head of water, the Swift Rapids powerhouse was delivering power to Orillia within 24 hours.

In 1965 they completed the locks, and the marine railway was removed.They still use the road out the pole line to the sixth concession which is much improved, but still very crooked. They had schools both at Ragged and the Swift and the teachers boarded in there.Now the children are taken by snowmobile in the winter and by boat in the summer to Severn Falls where they catch a bus that takes them to school in Waubaushene.