photograph © courtesy Heritage House Museum
Smiths Falls C15

photograph © courtesy Heritage House Museum
Frost & Wood C15

The Smiths Falls Canoe Club was founded in the late 1890s and joined the CCA’s Northern Division in 1901. The clubhouse was built in 1902 on the west end of Lock Island at Jones's lock. Tragically, four popular men drowned on the Rideau and the canoe club subsequently went into decline. The mid-1920s saw a brief revival when the Smiths Falls Aquatic Club applied for CCA membership in 1926, hosting an open regatta after the Northern Division Championships. Their 1927 war canoe crew was captained by Bill Carnegie. There was also a Frost & Wood Athletic Club who put together a war canoe team. (It is interesting to note that the club was also a member of the ACA at the same time as CCA and won the war canoe trophy at the ACA's 1902 meet in Carleton Place.)