Bike WA to VT, Write History: Mattawa, Ontario

Mattawa River (La Petite Rivière)

2,513 miles

June 29 – Mattawa is a town of about 2, 000 people at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers.

The name means "Meeting of the Waters" or “Meeting of the Waterways” in Algonquin language. (Ottawa means “trading”.) Native peoples used the rivers as an important transportation corridor for many centuries. In the early 1600s, French explorers travelled through the area, and it became a link in the water route leading from Montreal west to Lake Superior. Canoes travelling west up the Ottawa turned left at "the Forks" (the mouth of the Mattawa) to enter the "Petite Rivière" ("Small River", as compared to the Ottawa), before continuing on to Lake Nipissing.

Another Mattawa

Mattawa, Washington

I discovered interesting features of this town, but because this is a virtual trip and I’m learning about the place from afar, my online explorations revealed another place that I would not have found if I were actually in Ontario. In my own state of Washington, USA, is another town of Mattawa. It is also situated near a great river, the Columbia. I wondered whether Canadians from Ontario had resettled in Washington and created this town. I was surprised to find a very different story.

Mattawa, Washington, was said to be named with an “Indian” word meaning “Where is it?” This was a very cryptic and incongruous way to name a new town in the ebullient days of Euro-American settlement. In fact, the town that is now Mattawa was originally platted & planned in 1909, and it was then called Priest Rapids. When I learned this, I began to speculate again about French Catholic Canadians exploring and naming things in this area. I was wrong again in my attempts to connect the two Mattawas.

Wanapum house by Priest Rapids

Priest Rapids was a narrow, fast-flowing stretch of the Columbia River where seven separate cataracts dropped the river 72 feet. It was an ideal salmon fishing site that supported a dozen or so Wanapum villages along the west bank of the river.

In 1811 Alexander Ross of the Pacific Fur Company visited the "strong and rocky rapid", where his group was greeted by a Wanapum “medicine man” or “priest”. Haquilaugh was an influential leader who performed religious ceremonies and smoked a peace pipe with Ross. Ross named the rapids for the holy man.

Priest Rapids Dam

In the 1950s, the construction of Priest Rapids Dam submerged Priest Rapids, taking advantage of the river's drop for hydroelectric power production. Today there are no rapids at Priest Rapids.

The town was renamed Mattawa around that time. Now that I know the story of the place, the name makes sense. Rather than retain the name of rapids that no longer exist, the town chose a name that refers to the disappearance of the traditional fishing site. “Where is it?”

Mattawa, Ontario

easy canoe access

In Mattawa, Ontario, people still enjoy access to their rivers. Numerous access points provide opportunities for canoeing or boating on the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers.

The Ottawa River is a natural border between Ontario and the hills of Quebec, but the river provides crucial transportation and communication links, and francophone culture is strong here.

Mattawa features many large wooden statues depicting local historical figures, such as the explorer Samuel de Champlain and Big Joe Mufferaw, a regional folk hero. The statues are placed throughout Mattawa, and in two locations along Highway 17 outside the town.

Big Joe Mufferaw statue

Big Joe Mufferaw was a French Canadian folk hero from the Ottawa Valley. Like Paul Bunyan, he made his living chopping down trees. His name was originally Montferrand, but anglophones who had trouble with it more often spelled it as Muffero, Muffera, or Muffraw.

Jos Montferrand portrait

In addition to being the subject of many tall tales of heroic logging exploits, Big Joe Mufferaw is depicted as a defender of oppressed French Canadian loggers in the days when their bosses were English-Canadians and their rivals for work were Irish-Canadians. In one story, Big Joe was in a Montreal bar, where a British army major named Jones was freely insulting French Canadians. After Big Joe beat the major, he bellowed, "Any more insults for the Canadians?"

The Mattawa area contains many kilometers of year-round ATV and snowmobile trails, known as the Voyageur Multi-Use Trail System.

Voyageur Days live music festival

Every summer, the Mattawa Voyageur Days Festival is held the last weekend of July. (Even though I feel much delayed in my journey, it appears that I’ve arrived here too early for this festival.) Mattawa’s Voyageur Days Festival includes live music concerts behind the town museum, a regional talent night, a lumberjack competition, and a canoe race.