Rice Lake, Harwood and Gore’s Landing

By Guy Scott

Rice Lake is a large lake on the Trent Canal that forms the southern boundary of Peterborough County. The Otonabee River flows into the west end of the lake and flows out the east end as the Trent River; basically making Rice Lake a flooded section of the River. The lake is rather shallow, with a maximum depth of only 27 feet. The south side of the lake is the Oak Ridges Moraine which is the height of land separating rivers that drain into the Trent Watershed and those that drain directly into Lake Ontario. This ridge plays a big part in the history of the lake.

The lake was named after the large beds of wild rice that grew there. Wild Rice is native to Canada and grows in shallow lakes. It was very important to the local natives, who lived close to the rice beds in summer and autumn. They deftly paddled their canoes among the rice, bent over the stalks into the canoe and threshed the stalks, dropping the rice into the bottom of the canoe. When the canoe was full, the rice was taken to shore and roasted over a fire to cure it. The resulting staple was stored for winter use.

The wild or brown rice was gathered by natives at Rice Lake from time immemorial. Serpent Mounds is an ancient (2000 years old) burial site on the north shore of Rice Lake. It was not a permanent settlement, but rather a burial site where internments occurred likely once per year. The natives of the area would descend on the site from miles around to celebrate the Festival of the Dead. Likely this ceremony was held in the Fall when the rice harvest was ready.

The early settlers were eager buyers of wild rice and many local natives were only too happy to provide the supply. However, in 1839 a dam was built at Crook’s Rapids (now Hastings) to hold the high water levels of spring and assist the lumber industry. This raised the water level on Rice Lake by several feet and destroyed most of the rice beds. The water levels became too deep for the rice to grow. Since then, carp have come to infest the lake. The scavengers ate the young rice shoots and further degraded the rice beds. Today, only a fraction of the rice beds have survived.

Wild Rice also grows in patches on other of the Kawartha Lakes, including Buckhorn and Pigeon Lakes. It is still harvested today by local natives who kept the rights to harvest wild rice when they signed the various treaties in the early 1800s.

The earliest settlers to Peterborough, Victoria and Haliburton Counties arrived via Rice Lake. The Lake was only a few miles from the ‘ports’ of Cobourg, Port Hope and Colborne on Lake Ontario. Travelling overland, these settlers embarked at ‘local’ ports such as Bewdley, Harwood and Gore’s Landing for a trip by water up the Otonabee River to points north along the Kawartha Lakes. The boats used were a variety of crude vessels such as scows, barges, canoes and whatever floated and could hold people or baggage. Steam boats only appeared in the 1860s, when railways had bypassed the lake. Peterborough was only a day’s row from the south side of Rice Lake. Nevertheless, these trips were arduous and difficult. A “Plank Road was built in 1846 to facilitate all the traffic going north. Gore’s Landing was founded to be the terminus or port of the Plank Road. The road was surfaced not by gravel, but by 3” wooden planks. The planks were plentiful and cheap, but the Road was a disaster! The planks rotted quickly, frost heaved them every spring and the Road required constant care. After a few years, it was in such bad shape, it was abandoned.

So when railway technology became common in the 1840s, one of the first plans was for a railway from Cobourg to Harwood to carry traffic from Cobourg to the shores of Rice Lake and beyond. The Cobourg to Peterborough or Rice Lake Railway failed, the citizens of Cobourg lost a ton of money, and to make matters worse, rival Port Hope pushed the first railway north to Lindsay in the 1850s! The ‘ports’ along Rice Lake were bypassed by the new Iron Horse and business collapsed.

But all was not lost! Rice Lake was still the beautiful scenic gem it always was, and tourism became the number one industry along the south shore. Rice Lake is also famous for its fishing. Pickerel, Muskies and Bass are the most common species. The fish habitat of the lake is ideal for warm water species. The habitat is so ideal, it is claimed Rice Lake contained the most fish per square mile of any lake in Ontario.

Harwood

Harwood was the port on the south shore of Rice Lake where the Rice Lake railway started to cross the lake. The area was purchased in 1828 by a Montreal merchant named Robert Harwood and was a port for the water routes up the Otonabee to Peterborough. The railway reached Harwood village in 1854, which set off an economic boom. But the railway was closed in 1862 and the boom went bust. However, the railway line still existed and Harwood became the terminus for the Cobourg Line. The local sawmill closed in 1895 and the railway line was discontinued. Today, Harwood is a tourist centre.

Gore’s Landing

Gore’s Landing was the terminus for the Plank Road. The engineer of this road was Thomas Gore, and so the name of the village. It was another ‘port’ where travellers and goods going north embarked on a series of water craft for the trip. The Plank Road did not last long, but Gore’s Landing was more durable. As the railways drained away business from the natural obstacle to land transportation known as Rice Lake, the village became a sleepy tourist town. It still exploits the scenery of Rice Lake to this very day.