Trent-Severn Waterway Lock 27 - Young's Point, ON - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

The small lift lock located at Young's Point is known as Trent-Severn Waterway Lock #27. The waterway was constructed between 1833 and 1920 lock, with the Young's Point lock constructed in the early 1870's.

The lock was constructed at the location of a natural rapids between Katchewanooka Lake to the south and Clear Lake to the north.

Young's Point is named after Francis Young, an Irish immigrant who settled there in 1825. There is a cairn near the locks that pays homage to Francis Young and his family (waymarked as WMXF8G)

Canadian author Susanna Moodie lived nearby on Katchewanooka Lake during the 1830's. Her literary classic "Roughing it in the Bush" has much to say about Mr Young and his choice to take up land at the rapids. In the chapter "A Trip To Stoney Lake", Susanna recalls a trip she made with her husband and children, by canoe, to visit with the Young's followed by a tour on Clear and Stoney lakes (circa 1835)

The mill at the Clear Lake rapids was about three miles distant from our own clearing; and after stemming another rapid, and passing between two beautiful wooded islands, the canoe rounded a point, and the rude structure was before us.

A wilder and more romantic spot than that which the old hunter had chosen for his homestead in the wilderness could scarcely be imagined. The waters of Clear Lake here empty themselves through a narrow, deep, rocky channel, not exceeding a quarter of a mile in length, and tumble over a limestone ridge of ten or twelve feet in height, which extends from one bank of the river to the other. The shores on either side are very steep, and the large oak-trees which have anchored their roots in every crevice of the rock, throw their fantastic arms far over the foaming waterfall, the deep green of their massy foliage forming a beautiful contrast with the white, flashing waters that foam over the shoot at least fifty feet below the brow of the limestone rock. By a flight of steps cut in the banks we ascended to the platform above the river on which Mr. Y——'s house stood.

It was a large, rough-looking, log building, surrounded by barns and sheds of the same primitive material. The porch before the door was covered with hops, and the room of general resort, into which it immediately opened, was of large dimensions, the huge fire-place forming the most striking feature. On the hearth-stone, hot as was the weather, blazed a great fire, encumbered with all sorts of culinary apparatus, which, I am inclined to think, had been called into requisition for our sole benefit and accommodation.

The good folks had breakfasted long before we started from home, but they would not hear of our proceeding to Stony Lake until after we had dined. It was only eight o'clock a.m., and we had still four hours to dinner, which gave us ample leisure to listen to the old man's stories, ramble round the premises, and observe all the striking features of the place.

Mr. Y—— was a Catholic, and the son of a respectable farmer from the south of Ireland. Some few years before, he had emigrated with a large family of seven sons and two daughters, and being fond of field sports, and greatly taken with the beauty of the locality in which he had pitched his tent in the wilderness, he determined to raise a mill upon the dam which Nature had provided to his hands, and wait patiently until the increasing immigration should settle the townships of Smith and Douro, render the property valuable, and bring plenty of grist to the mill.

He was not far wrong in his calculations; and though, for the first few years, he subsisted entirely by hunting, fishing, and raising what potatoes and wheat he required for his own family, on the most fertile spots he could find on his barren lot, very little corn passed through the mill.

At the time we visited his place, he was driving a thriving trade, and all the wheat that was grown in the neighbourhood was brought by water to be ground at Y——'s mill.

Source: www.gutenberg.org/files/4389/4389-h/4389-h.htm#link2HCH0018 - Public Domain

Waterway Name: Trent-Severn Waterway Connected Points: Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1870 Elevation Difference (meters): 2.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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