Low Down Articles
Local History
Article 4 of 111
This article first appeared in the June 25, 2025 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Chelsea 150th Anniversary
Did You Know
Chelsea's history is rich in many fascinating details - there is no way we could list them all in one place. On these pages, we've compiled highlights spanning the last 150 years, taken from all over the municipality, which we thought readers would enjoy. (And when we say "we," we really mean the Gatineau Valley Historical Society, which is the source and author of this feature. Almost all of these photos come from the organization's photo bank. Many thanks to this local gem of dedicated volunteer historians and archivists.)
Chelsea had a tollgate?
The Cascades tollgate, the third one that travellers once encountered when heading north up the Gatineau Valley, was located near where Pine Road intersected what was then the main road along the Gatineau River. It was attached to a house at the south end of the village, where the tollkeepers lived.
The levying of tolls in the Gatineau Valley began in the late 1800s, following Gilmour and Company's establishment of the Hull and Wakefield Macadamized Road Company. It rebuilt and managed the main road on the west side of the Gatineau River. The provincial government took over the main road in 1923, and toll collection ceased. After the completion of the Chelsea Dam, the site of the Cascades tollgate was submerged by the waters that rose slowly in early 1927.
Chelsea's iconic covered bridge was a Great Depression make-work project?
George Cross and daughter Gladys Cross (later Payne) stand on the old bridge over the creek, while unidentified workers build the new covered bridge behind them. The first covered bridge at this site was completely built and painted in just over two weeks, between July 11 and July 28, 1932.
Road improvements and this bridge were public works projects undertaken to relieve unemployment during the Great Depression. In January 1932, there were "upwards of 250 people looking to the municipality for support," according to West Hull (Chelsea) records. This number represented 25 per cent of Chelsea's population at the time. The Meech Creek covered bridge is the municipality of Chelsea's logo.
Four neighbours founded the Gatineau River Yacht Club?
The Gatineau River Yacht Club had very humble beginnings back in the early 1960s, when four Gleneagle residents got together and decided to form a sailing club. The founding members of the Club were John Winfield, Gerry Byers, Pat Evans and Allan Richens.
The first name planned was the "Gleneagle Sailing Club," but, after reflection, they decided that they wanted a more all-encompassing name and settled on The Gatineau River Yacht Club, a rather grandiose title for a club whose members had only five boats.
Why Burnett is spelled two ways?
Why is the main road in the Chelsea sector of Burnet spelled "Burnett"?
The Burnett road is well-named after an early farming family, so how did the Chelsea sector become known as Burnet, with only one "t"? One story is when the train station was added here to service the growing number of cottagers, CPR picked the name of the road next to it for the train timetable schedules. But when the station roof was painted to identify this as the Burnett stop, the sign painter misjudged and ran out of room to add the second ‘t' at the end. As such, the community became oficially known as Burnet.