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The Lives of Lake Ontario: An Environmental History
282 pages, Hardcover
Published September 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 4, 2025
Like reading a really, really good Wikipedia page.
November 24, 2024
An excellent all-encompassing look at Lake Ontario's environmental history. Very readable.
December 9, 2024
MacFarlane's book looks at the history of Lake Ontario and how it became the dumping ground for both human and industrial waste. He traces the development of the lake over time showing how use of it has changed not only the lake itself but also how the lake is used by those who live around it.
Lake Ontario served as both a bridge and a barrier between Canada an the United States, facilitating interactions and transborder integration in some ways, while impeding them in others. Though Lake Ontario was central to the evolution of the Canadian nation-state, it was much more peripheral to the national imaginary of the United States. 15
The Wendat, a fairly sedentary Iroquoian-speaking group, shape the surrounding landscape: they lived in longhouses, maintained agricultural fields, and cut down parts of the heavily forested region. Their maize fields were extensive. The Niagara River was a trading crossroads and Niagara Falls was an important spiritual and physical resource. The predominant Indigenous group around the Niagara River at the time of contact was the Neutral Confederacy. Composed of Iroquoian speakers, the French called them ‘Neutral’ because of their elations with the Wendat and Five Nations, though the former called them Attiwandaron. They may have been the largest Indigenous society of the eastern woodlands in the early seventeenth century. Yet by the latter half of the same century the Neutrals had ceased to exist as a distinct cultural group because of disease, conflict, migration, and forced adoption, with a cooling climate also a potential factor. Consequently, relatively little of their history has been recorded, especially compared to the Anishinaabeg or Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 25
These alliances would shift after the Great Peace of 1701, which the Beaver Wars. As part of this accord, the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg nations agreed to a peace treaty based on the ‘dish with one spoon’ principle. Though the precise nature and extent of this concept is debated, it generally holds that the land (the dish) should be peacefully shared to the mutual benefit of the people using its resource (the spoon), who also retain their independence and sovereignty. 32
What the Europeans call the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and Americans call the French and Indian War, has been described as ‘an arms race on Lake Ontario.’ 34
Then a settlement grew a touch to the east along the shoreline. It was named Toronto, then York, then later Toronto again. 35
Settler pressures only increased as the Canadian state took shape. IN 1841 Upper Canada and Lowers Canada became the Province of Canada, with the former named Canada West and the latter Canada East; a quarter-century later, they would become the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. As of 1860, Indigenous peoples constituted less than 1 per cent of the two million inhabitants of Canada West and Canada East…. 43
In the decade after the Declaration of Independence, several thousand people who had stayed loyal to the British Crown stated to take up His Majesty's offer of free land. In 1784 the middle of the St. Lawrence River became part of the new boundary between British and American territory…When the displaced migrants, or United Empire Loyalists as they became known, arrived they called the land around Lake Ontario ‘wilderness.’ 44
Asa Danforth, an American surveyor was commissioned in 1799 to make a road from Kingston to York, which he finished in three years. 45
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. It also put paid to the protracted era of conflict that has been called the Long War period, which stretched back through the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, and the wars of Indigenous extermination. 50
From York, primitive roads were hacked out in multiple directions, while turnpikes and plank roads were laid out on the US side of the lake. The waterfront was the means by which most people arrived and departed, the conduit by which resources and supplies were sent in and out. 60
In the 1830s and 1840s, the iron horse of the railways galloped through the area, reducing the need to time mobility quite so closely to nature’s clock. Many of Ontario’s railways radiated out from Lake Ontario ports, and the lake remains the prime hub in the spiderweb of lines that resulted from the craze of subsequent decades. 73
America’s exceptionally violent and sprawling Civil War then threatened to spill north over the border, helping motivate the creation of the Dominion of Canada. 78
Lake Ontario served as both a bridge and a barrier between Canada an the United States, facilitating interactions and transborder integration in some ways, while impeding them in others. Though Lake Ontario was central to the evolution of the Canadian nation-state, it was much more peripheral to the national imaginary of the United States. 15
The Wendat, a fairly sedentary Iroquoian-speaking group, shape the surrounding landscape: they lived in longhouses, maintained agricultural fields, and cut down parts of the heavily forested region. Their maize fields were extensive. The Niagara River was a trading crossroads and Niagara Falls was an important spiritual and physical resource. The predominant Indigenous group around the Niagara River at the time of contact was the Neutral Confederacy. Composed of Iroquoian speakers, the French called them ‘Neutral’ because of their elations with the Wendat and Five Nations, though the former called them Attiwandaron. They may have been the largest Indigenous society of the eastern woodlands in the early seventeenth century. Yet by the latter half of the same century the Neutrals had ceased to exist as a distinct cultural group because of disease, conflict, migration, and forced adoption, with a cooling climate also a potential factor. Consequently, relatively little of their history has been recorded, especially compared to the Anishinaabeg or Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 25
These alliances would shift after the Great Peace of 1701, which the Beaver Wars. As part of this accord, the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg nations agreed to a peace treaty based on the ‘dish with one spoon’ principle. Though the precise nature and extent of this concept is debated, it generally holds that the land (the dish) should be peacefully shared to the mutual benefit of the people using its resource (the spoon), who also retain their independence and sovereignty. 32
What the Europeans call the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and Americans call the French and Indian War, has been described as ‘an arms race on Lake Ontario.’ 34
Then a settlement grew a touch to the east along the shoreline. It was named Toronto, then York, then later Toronto again. 35
Settler pressures only increased as the Canadian state took shape. IN 1841 Upper Canada and Lowers Canada became the Province of Canada, with the former named Canada West and the latter Canada East; a quarter-century later, they would become the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. As of 1860, Indigenous peoples constituted less than 1 per cent of the two million inhabitants of Canada West and Canada East…. 43
In the decade after the Declaration of Independence, several thousand people who had stayed loyal to the British Crown stated to take up His Majesty's offer of free land. In 1784 the middle of the St. Lawrence River became part of the new boundary between British and American territory…When the displaced migrants, or United Empire Loyalists as they became known, arrived they called the land around Lake Ontario ‘wilderness.’ 44
Asa Danforth, an American surveyor was commissioned in 1799 to make a road from Kingston to York, which he finished in three years. 45
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. It also put paid to the protracted era of conflict that has been called the Long War period, which stretched back through the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, and the wars of Indigenous extermination. 50
From York, primitive roads were hacked out in multiple directions, while turnpikes and plank roads were laid out on the US side of the lake. The waterfront was the means by which most people arrived and departed, the conduit by which resources and supplies were sent in and out. 60
In the 1830s and 1840s, the iron horse of the railways galloped through the area, reducing the need to time mobility quite so closely to nature’s clock. Many of Ontario’s railways radiated out from Lake Ontario ports, and the lake remains the prime hub in the spiderweb of lines that resulted from the craze of subsequent decades. 73
America’s exceptionally violent and sprawling Civil War then threatened to spill north over the border, helping motivate the creation of the Dominion of Canada. 78
April 2, 2025
Lots of good information on history, environmental stresses on the lake and its watershed, and the effects of the St Lawrence Seaway, particularly on water levels. Particularly interesting points to me: -the lake was the main artery of trade and communication for those living around it, at least until the railways were built, much or most of it across the border, despite political tensions between the US and British North America/Canada at the time;
- most settlement on the north side was on the lake, while Oswego and Niagara-on-the-lake are the only significant communities built right on the south side of the lake (Rochester began around mills on the Genesee river, and St Catherines began on the Welland canal - some miles from the lake in both cases). No mystery in my mind: the predominant winds are from the northwest - offshore on most of the north side, but onshore on the south and east sides of the lake, where people have a stronger need for protection against wind and waves. The Erie Canal just reinforced this settlement pattern in upstate New York.
However:
p.8 'At 1640 km squared it is the 2nd smallest Great Lake by volume' should be km cubed.
p.9 'most polluted of the Great Lakes' - By what measure? Probably true for chemicals like mirex, but Lake Erie seems worse affected by nutrient pollution - witness toxic algal blooms near Toledo in recent years.
'St Lawrence...just under 750 miles the third-longest river on the continent' but 750 miles (roughly the distance from Kingston to Pointe Jaune on the Gaspe (the south end of the boundary between the river and Gulf set by the International Hydrographic Org., but 150km farther than the river's end set by the Commission de Toponymy Quebec at Pointe des Monts)) would make it the 20th longest river on the continent. From its most distant headwaters west of Duluth it is about 3060km long but still 140km shorter than the Yukon, the 3rd longest river in North America according to WorldAtlas.com.
p.16 'the lake's water levels... changed dramatically over the past few centuries, especially since the mid-twentieth century' but the advent of the St Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s led to less variation in the lake's water level than previously, although very wet weather in 2019 led to the highest level since reliable records began in 1918.
p.19 'raising the Duck-Galloo sill [the beginning of the lake's outlet] a foot per century even as the southern shore is gradually sinking.' Actually the whole lake basin is still rebounding from removal of the Laurentide ice sheet, but faster at the outlet. Per https://ijc.org/en/loslrb/watershed/faq/ Section 1.3 "isostatic rebound means slightly deeper water for the northwest shore (15cm) and for the southeast shore (4cm)... compared to 100 years ago.
'no other continent waited so long for a human presence' Antarctica?
p.68 'Later it [the capital of Canada] would be sent northwest [from Montreal] to Bytown...renamed Ottawa' But Ottawa is south of west of Montreal, not northwest.
p.106 'toll freeway' is a contradiction in terms
p.134 'dreissenid mussels...native to the Caspian Sea' The zebra and quagga mussels came here from the Black sea, where they are native. They may also be present in the Caspian since the Volga Don canal allows passage between the two seas.
p.135 'cormorants...have crowded out formerly abundant gull species, with the help of Canada geese, mallard ducks, and non-native mute swans.' In the Toronto area, gulls declined around the time the cormorants returned in the 1980s & 1990s mostly because the Keele valley landfill site closed, removing a major source of food for our gulls. Cormorants here feed mostly on alewives - to the extent alewives no longer wash up dead on shorelines as they did before cormorants returned, they have made alewives much less accessible to gulls. It is hard to see how mallards, geese or swans have crowded out gulls - they barely compete for food and there is ample nesting area on Leslie St spit for the reduced number of gulls as well as the geese and swans that nest there.
p.160 'leeches carcinogens' should be leaches
p.178 'glacial rebound...elevating the west end of the lake about a foot per century' Actually the northeast corner, as stated on p. 19 - see note above
p.193 'high-level nuclear waste [HLW] is stored in pools at the refining plant' HLW in Canada is used nuclear fuel which is not in Port Hope - it is stored in pools for some years and then transferred to dry storage canisters - both at the nuclear generating stations
- most settlement on the north side was on the lake, while Oswego and Niagara-on-the-lake are the only significant communities built right on the south side of the lake (Rochester began around mills on the Genesee river, and St Catherines began on the Welland canal - some miles from the lake in both cases). No mystery in my mind: the predominant winds are from the northwest - offshore on most of the north side, but onshore on the south and east sides of the lake, where people have a stronger need for protection against wind and waves. The Erie Canal just reinforced this settlement pattern in upstate New York.
However:
p.8 'At 1640 km squared it is the 2nd smallest Great Lake by volume' should be km cubed.
p.9 'most polluted of the Great Lakes' - By what measure? Probably true for chemicals like mirex, but Lake Erie seems worse affected by nutrient pollution - witness toxic algal blooms near Toledo in recent years.
'St Lawrence...just under 750 miles the third-longest river on the continent' but 750 miles (roughly the distance from Kingston to Pointe Jaune on the Gaspe (the south end of the boundary between the river and Gulf set by the International Hydrographic Org., but 150km farther than the river's end set by the Commission de Toponymy Quebec at Pointe des Monts)) would make it the 20th longest river on the continent. From its most distant headwaters west of Duluth it is about 3060km long but still 140km shorter than the Yukon, the 3rd longest river in North America according to WorldAtlas.com.
p.16 'the lake's water levels... changed dramatically over the past few centuries, especially since the mid-twentieth century' but the advent of the St Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s led to less variation in the lake's water level than previously, although very wet weather in 2019 led to the highest level since reliable records began in 1918.
p.19 'raising the Duck-Galloo sill [the beginning of the lake's outlet] a foot per century even as the southern shore is gradually sinking.' Actually the whole lake basin is still rebounding from removal of the Laurentide ice sheet, but faster at the outlet. Per https://ijc.org/en/loslrb/watershed/faq/ Section 1.3 "isostatic rebound means slightly deeper water for the northwest shore (15cm) and for the southeast shore (4cm)... compared to 100 years ago.
'no other continent waited so long for a human presence' Antarctica?
p.68 'Later it [the capital of Canada] would be sent northwest [from Montreal] to Bytown...renamed Ottawa' But Ottawa is south of west of Montreal, not northwest.
p.106 'toll freeway' is a contradiction in terms
p.134 'dreissenid mussels...native to the Caspian Sea' The zebra and quagga mussels came here from the Black sea, where they are native. They may also be present in the Caspian since the Volga Don canal allows passage between the two seas.
p.135 'cormorants...have crowded out formerly abundant gull species, with the help of Canada geese, mallard ducks, and non-native mute swans.' In the Toronto area, gulls declined around the time the cormorants returned in the 1980s & 1990s mostly because the Keele valley landfill site closed, removing a major source of food for our gulls. Cormorants here feed mostly on alewives - to the extent alewives no longer wash up dead on shorelines as they did before cormorants returned, they have made alewives much less accessible to gulls. It is hard to see how mallards, geese or swans have crowded out gulls - they barely compete for food and there is ample nesting area on Leslie St spit for the reduced number of gulls as well as the geese and swans that nest there.
p.160 'leeches carcinogens' should be leaches
p.178 'glacial rebound...elevating the west end of the lake about a foot per century' Actually the northeast corner, as stated on p. 19 - see note above
p.193 'high-level nuclear waste [HLW] is stored in pools at the refining plant' HLW in Canada is used nuclear fuel which is not in Port Hope - it is stored in pools for some years and then transferred to dry storage canisters - both at the nuclear generating stations
May 20, 2025
Had to critically review this book and I'm still mad that it was so hard to find negative aspects
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews