This article was provided by Mansel Hill for publication in Whitewater News. It’s from an issue of the former Cobden Sun.
Sun Strokes 1852 – The fire that was too much for Jason Gould
Sun Strokes, this week, is devoted to a fascinating story from Cobden’s history.
It’s the story of the steamship North Star, its Captain, DK Cowley, and a race against a raging forest fire.
In the years before Confederation, river steamers furnished the only transportation between Ottawa and upper reaches of the Ottawa Valley wilderness. To avoid the rapids at Portage du Fort, Jason Gould constructed an island highway from the Ontario side of the Ottawa River to the settlement of Cobden over the ancient Champlain Trail.
The Champlain Trail was a rough, corduroy-style roadway over which Jason Gould ran a stage service. The Gould Line was 13 miles long, from the Cobden terminus on Muskrat Lake. Mr. Gould ran a fleet of steamers to Pembroke up the lake and connecting on the Muskrat River.
The first steamer consisted of just two barges fastened together with a deck. He installed an engine somewhere in the interior, and this strange craft became the wonder of the Ottawa River, as it chugged through the marshy Muskrat to Pembroke, of course the barge became known as the Muskrat.
By 1852, Jason Gould had decided that his line was conveying sufficient traffic to warrant a better boat. So, he ordered machinery from England to equip a more powerful steamer. In August of 1853, the people of Cobden lined the shore of Muskrat Lake for the launching of the new ship, North Star.
For the next several years, the Gould Stage and Steamers Line prospered. From the first rapids on the Ottawa River from below Portage, travellers journeyed by stage then by steamer to Pembroke, where they once again converged with the Ottawa River. It was the main transportation route.
The day of disaster was during an exceptionally hot, dry July. The fire apparently started on Allumette Island and smoke was soon bellowing across the Ottawa River into Petawawa Township. Once the fire spread to the Ontario side of the river, it raged unchecked, wiping out settlements and homesteads in the townships of Alice, Stafford, Bromley, Ross, Westmeath and Horton. About 800 square miles was charred by the holocaust.
The North Star was docked in Pembroke awaiting the arrival of the steamer Pontiac from the Upper Ottawa when the first wisp of smoke warned of approaching fire. Soon the fire was upon the settlement, having almost flown through the tall stands of pine which covered the countryside. When the Pontiac arrived, it was difficult to transfer the passengers to the North Star because the connecting road was fire swept and a detour had to be set up.
The captain of the North Star was DK Cowley, who would later buy the interests of Jason Gould. In staving off their impending doom, Captain Cowley enlisted the passengers to asst in keeping the steamer from catching fire. The crew worked hard to keep the boat travelling in mid-stream, as far from the flames a possible. Parts of the Muskrat were barely more than a narrow passage, so it was to be a perilous journey.
It was almost noon when the steamer pulled out of Pembroke. The wind was stronger, the smoke was thicker, so that ahead of the craft on both sides of the river, everything was being consumed.
The first mile was travelled without event. Then, the steamer reached a rocky part of the channel where it had to be guided through with poles, a task rendered extremely difficult because of the heat and smoke.
Another mile further and a small clearing was reached, that of a settler known simply as Curley. Here, all was ablaze and there was no sign of life. But, the worst was yet to come. The next two miles before reaching Coffey’s Clearing were frightening.
The heat was intense and the smoke threatened to suffocate all those on board the North Star, but all hands worked desperately to keep the steamer from catching fire. They drew water from the river and threw it over the decks.
The captain and the helmsmen had possibly the most dangerous jobs – for they were required to stay on the upper deck without any protection from the heat and fire. To prevent their clothes from igniting, water was doused over them every now and again.
It is said that where the river was exceptionally narrow, or where the fierce winds met each other at short turns, the flames from each side of the stream met and formed a fiery canopy under which the steamer had to pass.
Eventually, the North Star reached the safer waters of Muskrat Lake, but the scene that awaited the ship and its passengers upon arrival was not a pleasant one.
Please see the conclusion of this story in next week’s Whitewater News.
