Publisher's Synopsis
Westport is a village in Eastern Ontario. It lies at the west end of Upper Rideau Lake, at the head of the navigable Rideau Canal system, between Kingston and Ottawa.The first settlers to the Westport area arrived in the period between 1810 and 1820. The land was originally granted by the Crown to a Mr. Hunter, but he never settled in the area and the land was purchased by Reuben Sherwood in 1817. Some of this land was later purchased by the Stoddard and Manhard families. In 1828, Stoddard built a saw mill and in 1829 the Manhards built a saw mill and grist mill. It became known at that time as Manhard's Mills. Two local merchants, Aaron Chambers and Lewis Cameron, named the village Westport in 1841, the name reflecting its location at the west end of Upper Rideau Lake. The village of Westport was incorporated in 1904 when it separated from North Crosby Township.Like much of the surrounding area, Westport received a large number of Irish immigrants in the 1840s through the 1860s, following the Great Famine in Ireland. St. Edward's Catholic Church at the corner of Concession and Bedford, built in 1859, was an early cultural centre for the largely Catholic Irish immigrants. Westport remained a thriving commercial centre through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. The building of the Rideau Canal allowed goods to be shipped north to Ottawa and south to Kingston. In 1882, an entrepreneur named R.G. Harvey proposed an ambitious project to build a railway from Brockville to Sault Ste. Marie. The project ran out of money after the section from Brockville to Westport had been completed in 1888. The Brockville-Westport line moved goods, mail and people to and from the St. Lawrence River and Westport. Many cheese factories were located between Brockville and Westport. The train was therefore known as the "cheese run." The rail line also brought tourists north to Westport starting a tradition of Westport as a tourist destination. The last train travelled the Brockville, Westport and North-Western Railway line in 1952.A public wharf on a man-made island has dock space for up to thirty vessels. The Westport Harbour also has a picnic area, barbecues, and sewage pump-out facilities. Fishing in the area is particularly good because of the fish-rearing ponds set up by the Government of Ontario in 1957. Yellow perch, smallmouth bass, pickerel, and Northern pike populate the waters.Foley Mountain Conservation Area, the highest conservation area in the Rideau Valley, is a picturesque park overlooking Westport. It features a variety of wildlife in 308 hectares (2.4 km²) of woods and fields. The area also has a sandy beach with changing facilities. The 300 kilometer Rideau Trail, linking Kingston and Ottawa, passes through the conservation area.Inverary, Elginburg and Port Elmsley are small villages in the area.
