Eastern Ontario, broadly defined as the region between Ottawa and Kingston, south of the Canadian Shield and north of the St. Lawrence, is one of the most historically dense regions of the province. It was among the first areas of Ontario to be settled by Europeans, and its long history has produced an extraordinary layering of built heritage, industrial ruins, and forgotten communities.
The region's geography made it a natural corridor for settlement and commerce. The Rideau Canal, completed in 1832, connected Kingston and Ottawa and spawned a chain of mill towns along its route. The St. Lawrence River was the province's connection to the wider world. Between these two waterways, the landscape filled with farms, villages, and small-scale industries that served the local market.
The Rideau Corridor
The towns along the Rideau Canal and its feeder lakes are some of the best-preserved examples of nineteenth-century Ontario. Smiths Falls, Perth, Merrickville, and Westport all have substantial collections of historic buildings, many of them dating to the canal era. But even here, abandonment is part of the story.
The mills that once powered these towns have largely closed. The textile mills of Smiths Falls, the distillery at Perth, the industrial operations that gave Merrickville its prosperity, all have left behind buildings that struggle to find new uses. Some have been converted to shops and restaurants. Others stand empty, their futures tied to an economic recovery that has not yet arrived.
The former industrial sites of Eastern Ontario include some remarkable buildings. The Frost and Wood factory complex in Smiths Falls, which once produced agricultural equipment sold around the world, is one of the largest industrial heritage sites in the region. Parts of it have been repurposed, but much of the complex remains underused.
Eastern Ontario's mix of farmland, forest, and water created a landscape dotted with historic villages and industrial sites.
The Lost Villages
Eastern Ontario has its own dramatic story of community displacement. When the St. Lawrence Seaway was built in the 1950s, the flooding of the river valley destroyed several villages along the St. Lawrence between Cornwall and Morrisburg. Aultsville, Farran's Point, Dickinson's Landing, Wales, Moulinette, and Mille Roches were all deliberately flooded to create the shipping channel and power reservoir.
These are not ghost towns in the traditional sense. They were prosperous communities that were destroyed by government decision, their residents relocated and their buildings demolished or moved. The Lost Villages Museum near Long Sault preserves some of the relocated structures, and at low water levels, foundations and artifacts from the drowned villages can sometimes be seen beneath the surface of the St. Lawrence.
Shield Edge
The northern edge of Eastern Ontario, where the limestone plain gives way to the Canadian Shield, has a different character. This is the region that the Ottawa Valley lumber industry operated in, and the transition zone is full of abandoned farmsteads and former logging communities. The landscape is rougher here, the soil thinner, and the evidence of failed settlement more visible.
Towns like Calabogie, Denbigh, and Plevna sit on or near this edge, and the back roads around them pass through country that was once more populated than it is today. Stone foundations in the forest, abandoned one-room school sites, and ghost hamlets are common.
The rail history of Eastern Ontario is also significant. The region was served by multiple rail lines, many of which have been abandoned. The former rail corridors are now trails, snowmobile routes, or simply overgrown rights-of-way cutting through the landscape.