It was summer of ‘58 and residents along the St. Lawrence River had much to celebrate with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It was the result of four years of construction and one of North America’s greatest engineering feats.

Local residents watched with excitement and fascination as the engineers diverted the water into the north and south channels surrounding Long Sault Island. But the project was not without its controversy.

Along the St. Lawrence shore lay a group of small riverside villages. In 1954, residents of these tightly knit communities were given the long awaited news that they would have to relocate, as their villages would be flooded and submerged under the new Lake St. Lawrence. This great undertaking drastically altered and changed the lives of over 6,500 people it displaced.

In 1977, a group of former residents founded the Lost Villages Historical Society, a group dedicated to commemorating the memory of and preserving the history of the lost villages.

Some 30 years later, the museum which is located at Ault Park, contains a number of artifacts and restored heritage buildings that were once part of the doomed hamlets. Here, memories and images of the villages themselves remain frozen in time.

To ensure the legacy remains and is passed on to future generations, Jane Craig, President of the Lost Villages Historical Society, along with a dedicated group of volunteers work together to promote the mission and values of the society.

Most recently, the Society was met with the challenge of making the Museum’s Forbes Memorial Reading Room accessible by adding an accessibility ramp without compromising the building’s historical value.

“People with a disability couldn’t access the building. The Reading Room houses genealogy, a lot of photos; things that people are really interested in. We had to do something” says Jane. Since the Society relies mainly on individual financial contributions and fundraising, they knew they had to be very creative in achieving their goal.

Thanks to the volunteers’ relentless efforts and community outreach, the Society established a partnership with the St. Lawrence College’s Carpentry Program, where the students constructed and installed a 36-foot long ramp free of charge over three days. “It was a great educational project for the class” says Lance Bowman, the St. Lawrence College teacher who spearheaded the project with his students. “We also learned a lot about the history of our community”.

Community resident Serge Langevin who uses a wheelchair is a regular visitor of the Lost Villages Museum. “People who have to use mobility devices like myself really appreciate this. It’s nice to see people move ahead, get help and come together to do a project such as this – it’s fantastic.”