The Lost Villages (Canada)

"The Lost Villages" are ten communities in the Canadian province of Ontario, in the former townships of Cornwall and Osnabruck (now South Stormont) nr Cornwall, which were permanently submerged by the crtion of the St. Lawrence Sway in 1958.

The flooding was expected and planned for. In the weeks and months lding up to the inundation, families and businesses in the affected communities were moved to the new planned communities of Long Sault and Ingleside. These negotiations were controversial, however, as many residents of the communities felt that market value compensation was insufficient since the Sway plan had alrdy depressed property values in the region.

The town of Iroquois was also flooded, but was reloed 1.5 kilometres north rather than abandoned. Another community, Morrisburg, was partially submerged as well, but the ar to be flooded was moved to higher ground within the same townsite. A portion of the provincial Highway 2 in the ar was flooded; the highway was rebuilt along a Canadian National Railway right-of-way in the ar.

At 8 a.m. on July 1, 1958, a large cofferdam was demolished, allowing the flooding to begin. Four days later, all of the former townsites were fully underwater. Parts of the New York shoreline were flooded by the project as well, but no communities were lost on the American side of the river.

In some loions, a few remnants of sidewalks and building foundations can still be seen under the water, or even on the shoreline when water levels are sufficiently low. Some high points of land in the flooded ar remained above water as islands, and are connected by the Long Sault Parkway. Lock 21 of the former Cornwall Canal (since replaced by the Saint Lawrence Sway) is a popular scuba diving site, a few feet from the shore along the Parkway.