les amis de la rivière kipawa, river protection, kipawa river, whitewater, quebec, ontario

Prehistoric Birth of a River

As the Pleistocene Ice Epoch began about 2.4 million years ago, advancing ice sheets marked the beginning of a series of ice ages and one of the coldest climatic periods in the history of our planet. The most recent of these ice ages began about 120,000 years ago, peaking about 18,000 years ago when about one third of the planet was covered in ice sheets averaging one mile in thickness.

In the northern hemisphere, the largest sheet of ice was centred over Hudson Bay. It has been named the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and it covered most of what is now called eastern Canada.

Experts calculate that so much of the planet's water was locked up in ice during this time that the sea level was probably 400 feet below current levels. It is thought that people came to North America during this period travelling over the land bridge across the Bering Straight.

Best estimates are that by ten to 12 thousand years ago the Laurentide Ice Sheet was in full retreat in eastern North America and that at some time during that period, it receded back off the region of northwestern Quebec that has come to be known as Temiscamingue.

A receding ice sheet leaves a lot of melt water in its wake, and that water needed a way to get to the ocean. During this formative period, some of the melt water from the Laurantide Ice Sheet found a crack in the precambrian armor of the Canadian Shield and carved a new river dropping 90 m over 16 km from the current location of the Village of Laniel down to what became known as Lake Temiscamingue.

The river and the lake that feeds it, were given the name Kipawa by the Algonquin people.


A Colourful History
The first written reference to the Kipawa River talks about an early 19th century trip up the river by a Catholic priest, on his way to build a mission on Lake Kipawa for the Algonquin people. It is in his writings that the "marmot" (or kettles) in the Grande Chute waterfall are first spoken of. The marmot are actually potholes formed in the hard granite by the force of the water grinding small boulders against the bedrock. The Kipawa River has a colorful modern history that grew out of the virgin timber logging operations of the latter half of the 19th century. In the first half of the 20th century the river became the playground of movie moguls from New York City who made it their summer home and the backdrop for a few popular films from that time.
Kipawa River Lodge owners Scott and Pat Sorensen have researched the history of the river and their property on the lower section. Scott has published titled "Kipawa River Chronicles" a book documenting some of the events that have taken place in this very magical setting. A French version of Scott’s book, translated by Piere Gauthier and Martin Larche, is also available.
The first exploratory river runs on the Kipawa were made in 1971 in an open canoe by Jose Mediavilla and Joseph Jacob, paddlers from Rouyn. There was no take-out road at that time so running the Kipawa meant a 7 km walk back out to the main road. Jose continued to run the Kipawa over the years, and by 1976 was using the river for the moving water portion of his white water certification courses, sanctioned by the provincial white water organization, Federation Canoe/Kayak d'eau Vive. Some of the paddlers in the early years included Andre Tessier, Piere Guillemette, Normand Duhaine, Marc Ruel, and Bernard Beland. In 1985, Jose introduced the river to a couple of northern Ontario paddlers and the Kipawa River Rally was born.
It was during the mid-1980s that the rapids were given the names they have today. Over the past 20 years, the Kipawa River Rally has introduced hundreds and hundreds of paddlers to the Kipawa River's incredible natural beauty, and its magical mood swings.