O f f T H E t O N G u e
Paddlers now welcome.
photo: scott macGreGor
Making History in paddling towns
IN KENT FORD’S documentary The Call of the Meanwhile further upstream Hermann and a paddling magazine, moved to Palmer Rapids,
River: A Hundred Years of Whitewater Adven- Christa Kerchoff opened the Madawaska Kanu and 11 months later launched the first 16-page
ture, he traces the history of whitewater from its Centre on what is known as the Middle Mad sampler issue of Rapid magazine.
humble beginnings in Europe through its position section. North America’s oldest paddling school Today Paddler Co-op’s outreach program has
today as a major outdoor sport. brought a European whitewater flavour to the made inroads. A two-day paddling program for
Paddling as we know it here in North America area—specifically, kayakers. students at Palmer Rapids Public School marks
began in the early ‘70s with an emerging coun- In the early 1980s, the Ministry of Natural Re- the first time in 200 years that local residents have
terculture of hippie adventurers. With topographic sources proposed the creation of the Madawaska actually paddled the rapids. Paddler Co-op oper-
maps they headed for the hills in search of virgin River Provincial Park. Local residents saw the plan ates an office and campground out of the facili-
runs landing in what are today’s best-known pad- as a threat to land ownership and motorized use of ties left vacant by the MNR in the ‘90s. It is on this
dling towns. In this issue we’ve featured 50, in- the river, and this marked the beginning of ill feel- site that Rapid hosts Palmer Fest, making a white-
cluding my own—Palmer Rapids. Like many oth- ings toward “goddamned paddlers.” water festival the second largest tourist event in
ers, it became a paddling town in spite of itself. The park was approved in 1987, but with the 700-square-kilometre municipality.
Europeans first settled the rugged area in the boundaries scaled back to 200 metres on ei- A few of the 50 whitewater towns in this issue
mid-1800s, scraping out livelihoods with subsis- ther side of the 22-kilometre whitewater section are investing millions in building whitewater fa-
tence farming and logging. Hundreds of men from Aumonds Bay to the town of Griffith. Then cilities. Others are viciously divided on the impor-
drove logs down the Madawaska River each the recession in the early ‘90s gutted resource tance of the natural, economic and recreational
spring to the lumber mills in Palmer Rapids. Men management in the province and the park man- benefits of their rivers. Some, like Palmer Rapids,
died. “The river killed your father,” widows warned agement plan was shelved, downgrading it to a have resolved to a quiet acceptance of our man-
their children. non-operating waterway park. go Gore-Tex jumpsuits.
In 1931 Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Gen- Here’s where I come in—me and everyone else. If whitewater is still a major sport at the end of
eration) rebuilt the timber crib dam constructed in With the introduction of the Perception Dancer the next 100 years I believe it will be because of
1881 to hold back water for the spring log drives. and Royalex canoes, not only did the number of these four reasons: Deliverance dies with VHS;
It was rebuilt again in 1957 with channel excava- paddlers on rivers everywhere double; apparel we’ve gained the respect of politicians proving we
tions completed in 1967, just in time for the 1972 switched from natural fibres to purple and teal are revenue-generating and pain-in-their-ass neu-
release of the movie Deliverance and the subse- synthetics. Remember the ill feelings toward pad- tral; we’ve banded together to protect rivers from
quent first wave of Grumman canoes. dlers? Now we stuck out like sore thumbs. development; and we’ve grayed the line between
Palmer Rapids quickly became a training In 1997 Lee Chantrell, Shawna Babcock and I local and boater through education and respect
ground for canoe tripping summer camps, Black registered Paddler Co-op, a non-profit paddling for those who truly call the rivers their home.
Feather and private groups planning longer, school to teach no-frill paddling courses. In a bar
SCott MaCGreGor is the founder and publisher of Rapid, whose
northern expeditions. after our first tradeshow I got the idea of starting office remains in downtown Palmer rapids.
www.rapidmag.com 
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