Kirkfield Lift Lock
Work began on the Trent-Severn Waterway in 1833, but it was not completed until 1920—and only after a tremendous amount of political lobbying. The first navigational improvements were typically relatively easy projects. More challenging components, such as linking the two watersheds between Lake Simcoe and Balsam Lake would have to wait for decades. Because the waterway was an important political issue along its course, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald realized that either proposing or letting contracts for waterway improvements immediately before an election, maximized the political gain for these extremely expensive improvements. Though Macdonald had passed away, as his third Conservative successor Charles Tupper was to face Wilfrid Laurier in the 1896 election, he let a contract to begin work on the division joining Lake Simcoe and Balsam Lake. Laurier’s Liberals won the election and favoured railways, but since they inherited a contract for one of three sections, politically, they could not allow the division to go unfinished, so they would see it to completion.
Though the Laurier government might not have constructed this lock at all unless the Conservatives had begun work on the section, the new Prime Minister was just as politically savvy as his predecessors. Contractors Larkin and Sangster along with the Dominion Bridge Company of Montreal began work on the Kirkfield lock just before the election of 1900. An earlier survey of this division proposed eleven locks, but with the use of a lift lock, R.B. Rogers reduced the requirement to five conventional locks, plus the lift lock—which was (and remains) a feat of engineering.
Rogers had already designed the Peterborough Lift Lock, visiting Germany to learn about this technology. For his second lift lock, he made some changes in the plan, replacing the concrete towers to guide the caissons (the chambers or ‘tubs’ of water that were alternately lifted or lowered). He also used a steel aqueduct to feed water instead of concrete. His design used one caisson as a counterweight for the other, using hydraulic rams to lift one as the other was lowered 49 feet—being the second highest lift lock in the world, after Peterborough. The lock pit had to be excavated entirely out of stone—which was a very laborious job in the age of blasting, steam shovels, horses and manual labourers.
At the time the Kirkfield Lift Lock was built, concrete was a new building product and few people were familiar with its use. Unfortunately, the concrete inspector on this section did not have the expertise that he claimed and had an alcohol addiction that meant that he was often absent or unfit for work if he was present. Rogers’ plan for the concrete work was not correctly followed, causing approximately 1,000,000 gallons of water to pour through the walls per hour. Rogers oversaw the necessary repairs at the cost of $254—relative to a total project cost of $717,000. Yet the supervising engineer and inspector falsely claimed that Rogers’ plan had been followed, ultimately contributing to his politically-motivated dismissal—the concrete inspector escaped any official consequences, and moved on to another job. Rogers’ treatment was at to a significant degree politically motivated.
By 1907 work was finally completed on the division linking Lake Simcoe and Balsam Lake. A gala was held on July 6, where many dignitaries attended, but not R.B. Rogers—who had designed the engineering marvels that to this day remain the two highest lift locks in the world. At the time, the Minster of Railways and Canals had also been dismissed, so the honour of opening the lock was assigned to Postmaster-General Rudolphe Lemieux. The steamer Stoney Lake was the first boat through the lock, carrying the federal party, followed by two other steamers with newspaper reporters and local dignitaries. The Trent Valley Navigation Company’s Manita brought an excursion, followed by some small gas launches—a new technology at the time, that would soon represent the bulk of traffic using the lift lock.
The Kirkfield Lift Lock were overhauled in the 1960s, as the original manual controls were replaced with automated, electric controls—from then on, a single operator in the control tower could run the lock. The lockmaster’s house was demolished, as a massive concrete structure reinforced the canal, with a two-lane underpass. On September 2, 2022, the northern caisson suddenly began to leak as the Kawartha Voyageur was being lifted—leading to a terrifying experience for those on board: “All of a sudden there was all this water coming over the lock and it was like something shifted and it was making weird noises like distressed metal and clanking,” one passenger explained. In 2023, it operated using just one caisson as repairs were completed. More than a century after it first opened, the Kirkfield Lift Lock remains a fascinating local landmark.
