A deeper look at Little Lake
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Hi, I’m Currents co-editor Alex Karn. Welcome to your weekly Peterborough Currents email newsletter!
This week we’re sharing stories about the history of Little Lake in downtown Peterborough, a new comedic game show to be filmed live at The Theatre on King this fall, and a new feature on the Peterborough Currents website about refugees finding a home in Peterborough. Also this week, news updates from across the city, event listings, and a new mystery photo.
Let’s get into it!
A deeper look at Little Lake
by Alex Karn
As the final days of summer slip away, locals are making the most of the sunny weather along the shores of Little Lake.
Throughout the summer, crowds have filled Del Crary Park for Musicfest concerts overlooking the Centennial Fountain, while paddlers, swimmers and boaters have taken to the water. Earlier in the season, dozens of teams churned across the lake during the 25th Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival.
Beneath the concerts, festivals, and quiet afternoons by the shining waters of Little Lake, however, lies a deeper history shaped by Indigenous travel, colonial settlement, engineering, industry, and pollution.
The 64-hectare lake is a natural reservoir created during the last ice age. It sits along the Otonabee River, where Jackson Creek and the Trent Canal meet the waterway before it continues south toward Rice Lake.
Long before the modern canal system was constructed, Indigenous peoples travelled through this interconnected route of rivers, lakes, and portages. The landscape looked considerably different then: water levels around Little Lake were lower and the Otonabee River was broken by rapids.
In the 1820s, the river immediately below Little Lake was reportedly shallow enough to cross on foot near the former steamboat landing. Construction of a dam and lock at Whitla’s Rapids began in 1837, raising the water and eventually allowing steamships to reach the lake. The site is now Scott’s Mills and Lock 19 of the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Little Lake became central to the colonial settlement that grew into Peterborough after Adam Scott built a sawmill and grist mill near its southern edge in 1818.
As the lumber industry expanded, mills dumped sawdust and other debris into the river. The waste clogged navigable channels, killed fish, and created odours so strong that some nearby residents moved away. Atlantic salmon, once abundant in the waterway, disappeared.
The Ontario legislature required sawmills to burn their sawdust beginning in the 1870s, but industry continued to pollute the lake for many more years. Manufacturers would later dispose of industrial waste in the river, and by 1930, chemical pollution was killing large numbers of fish.
Monitoring has since shown declining levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCBs, although contamination remains concentrated in the sediment. The lake was eventually deemed safe for swimming and fishing by Peterborough Public Health.
Today, the Centennial Fountain rises about 75 metres (almost 250 feet) above a lake transformed by thousands of years of human movement and nearly two centuries of industrial change.
Those interested in learning more about the construction of the landmark fountain can watch a 20-minute black-and-white documentary digitized and posted to YouTube by the Peterborough + Kawartha Chamber of Commerce.
History meets comedy onstage this fall
by Alex Karn
A book listing events from nearly every year of recorded history first sparked David Creighton’s curiosity about how moments in time fit together.
Creighton received the book from his first girlfriend while attending university and spent hours exploring its timelines, wondering what was happening in different years and which events unfolded alongside one another. That fascination now forms the foundation of You’re History!, a comedic game show he will film before a live audience at The Theatre on King on Oct. 16.
The Peterborough writer, critic, comic, and filmmaker has previously created several stop-motion short films. He first designed You’re History! around 2015 through an online writers’ workshop called Hollywood the Game, as a small chatroom game.
More than a decade later, he is expanding the idea into an hour-long show that will test contestants’ knowledge of past events across roughly 2,000 years of human history, touching on a wide range of themes and topics.
Four contestants will answer multiple-choice questions simultaneously by writing their choices on whiteboards. The lowest-scoring player will be eliminated at the end of each of the first two rounds and hear the game’s defining phrase: “I’m sorry, you’re history!”
Creighton is developing the questions alongside teacher John Barclay, and role-playing game writer and designer Malcolm Shepard. The team is seeking two to four additional writer-researchers who can find interesting moments from history and turn them into comedic questions.
“This is meant to be a comedic show, not just a dry historical treatise type program,” Creighton said.
The October performance will be funded largely through Theatre Trent, which supports productions involving Trent University students, alumni and faculty. Creighton is a Trent alumnus, as are the other current members of the writing team.
“I owe a lot to Theatre Trent over the years, and if this is a huge success, we can hopefully graduate to a larger theater next time,” he said.
Creighton, who receives Ontario Disability Support Program benefits, also secured an annual small-business stipend available to recipients. He is putting that funding toward recording and editing the performance.
The completed footage will be used to create a promotional reel that Creighton hopes will help the team secure a broadcast agreement. His ambitions range from Canadian and American television networks to radio or podcast production.
“My dream is that we’d be on CBC, NBC, CTV, something big,” he said. “But this would also work for radio. It would also work as a podcast.”
Those interested in writing for the game show or performing as one of the four live contestants can reach out to Creighton via email at yourehistoryshow@protonmail.
Tickets to the live show are expected to go on sale from The Theatre on King’s website in September for $20, or $15 for students and seniors.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
Queer refugees find community in Peterborough, as Canada tightens rules that helped them arrive
by Madalena Provis
“Can you imagine your country sending you to jail because you wear a bracelet with certain colours or because you love someone?” asks Madgalena Provis, author of the latest feature article on the Peterborough Currents website, about queer refugees living in Peterborough.
“This happens to so many people around the world, and it is critical to tell those stories to create better and more inclusive societies and to help others overcome experiences that no one should ever have to endure.”
In her piece, she profiles three refugees who have fled from terrible circumstances in their home countries and found community in Peterborough, centred around the Rainbow Connections Group at the New Canadians Centre. She also explores the Canadian government’s tightening restrictions that are making it harder for people like those in the story, to make it to this country.
News in brief
by Gabe Pollock
Here’s a catch-up on what’s been going on in Peterborough and the surrounding region, with the support of our partners in local media:
- Posters expressing extreme white nationalist ideologies have started popping up again around East City and in the downtown. The posters reference “remigration,” a far-right term for mass deportation of non-white immigrants. While Police Chief Stuart Betts stated that “there is no room for hate in our community at any time,” the police have also said the posters do not qualify as hate messaging. The DBIA noted that the postering was “unauthorized” and they and the City will “take all necessary steps to have them removed.” This also comes as notorious Peterborough white nationalist Kevin Goudreau was again arrested on hate speech charges, in connection to a series of online threats against a human rights lawyer, and a same-sex couple.
- The City of Peterborough is continuing regular clear-outs of homeless encampments near the Wolfe Street modular housing community. The encampments are set up near the train tracks on land owned by CP Rail, making it a safety issue; however, with local shelters at or over capacity, it’s unclear where else people can go. Residents say the removals happen every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and include city bylaw enforcement workers as well as police. “I think if people knew about it, they’d be pissed off because the money could be better spent,” one resident told The Peterborough Examiner.
- A bit of progress on the demolition of the GE plant, which was announced last year, as GE Vernova has selected managers to develop environmental and health-and-safety plans for the demolition and oversee the project. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks told The Peterborough Examiner that it had not yet heard from GE, but noted that it’s the City of Peterborough who will be “responsible for reviewing demolition plan applications and issuing work permits for demolition activities.”
- Peterborough is changing the way it handles its investments, but some are concerned about what, exactly, the city is investing in. Peterborough city council voted to allow the nonprofit ONE Joint Investment Board to take over management of any excess city funds. However, aside from avoiding high-risk investments, the organization places very few restrictions on how those funds can be used. Coun. Joy Lachica and a delegation from For Our Grandchildren encouraged council to pursue divestment from fossil fuels and choose ethical and environmentally responsible investment alternatives, but this was voted down in council.
- Trent Radio is now accepting program proposals for its fall season. Any community member, with any level of broadcast experience (or lack thereof), can apply to host a program during Trent Radio’s regular broadcast season, which starts on September 21. Programme Proposal Information Sessions will be taking place downtown and on campus in early September – watch Trent Radio’s social media for announcements.
What’s on this weekend?
Peterborough Currents’ weekly event listings are back to help you plan your weekend. This week we’re highlighting events focused on historical appreciation. If you have an event coming up you’d like to share with our readers, email the details to us at news@peterboroughcurrents.ca
Here are just a few of the goings on in town over the next couple of days:
- Hutchison House Museum will serve its Scottish Tea on Friday, Aug. 21 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the museum’s period garden. Tea includes freshly baked scones, preserves, whipped cream, oatcakes, and a choice of tea, lemonade or iced tea, along with a tour of the restored 1840s stone house. Admission is $15 for adults and youth, $10 for children under 10 and $5 for children under five. Groups of more than four are required to register in advance.
- Trent Valley Archives will host Mainstreet Music, a 19+ walking tour exploring the history of downtown Peterborough’s live music venues, on Friday, Aug. 21 from 7 to 10 p.m. Beginning at Quaker Foods City Square, guide Maddie More will share stories about past and present venues including the Brock Arena, King George Hotel, and The Spill, and their roles in shaping Peterborough’s music scene. The tour covers several downtown blocks and will run rain or shine. Tickets cost $20 and must be purchased in advance.
- Lost Liberties – The War Measures Act is on display at the Peterborough Museum & Archives through Sept. 13. Developed by the Canadian Museum of History, the travelling exhibition examines the suspension of civil liberties in Canada during the First and Second World Wars and the 1970 October Crisis, including the experiences of people subjected to internment, forced relocation, and arrest under the War Measures Act. Admission is by a suggested donation of $10 per family or small group.
- There is still time to visit Trent Valley Archives’ photography exhibit, A Peterborough Summer: 1976, at Dreams of Beans Café. Curated by volunteer and Peterborough Currents co-founder and board member Will Pearson, the free exhibit draws from the Peterborough Examiner negative collection to capture everyday life in the city 50 years ago. The photographs will remain on display during café hours through Sept. 2.
Where in Peterborough…
This wrought-iron artwork adorns the front door of a local heritage building. Any guesses at where the photo was taken? Let us know at news@peterboroughcurrents.ca
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Alex Karn
Co-Editor
Peterborough Currents
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