High Falls Dam on York River

A walk beside High Falls Dam on York River in Bird’s Creek in the granite highlands south of Algonquin Provincial Park. High Falls is approximately10 meters in height and the dam, owned by Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, has four sluice gates and regulates the water in Baptiste Lake. The dam was first build in 1866 by the Bronson and Weston Company to shorten log drives to the Ottawa market. Some Baptiste Lake Algonquins may have been flooded out but many stayed in the area.* My understanding of the purpose of the dam now is that it controls flooding downstream in the Town of Bancroft, supports flow for the Bancroft generating station, and maintains water level for sport fishing in Baptiste Lake. The recording was made soon after spring melt so the great volume of water makes a very dense sound. I wore SP15 spatialized microphones and recorded with Hokusai app (free version). I started at the shore of Baptiste Lake and followed the trail past the dam and falls, encountering a young family on the way. *Fractured Homeland, Bonita Lawrence: Federal Recognition and Algonquin Identity in Ontario, UBC Press, 2012.