we love Gatineau Park

Some people make the mistake of thinking that Kingsmere, the Gatineau Park location of the Mackenzie King estate, is named after William Lyon Mackenzie King. In fact Kingsmere is named for King Mountain nearby, which had gotten its name before Mackenzie King ever showed his face in the Gatineaus in 1900.

But King Mountain is famous for a third King. William Fredrick King was head of the Geodetic Survey of Canada and used King Mountain as the starting point for the entire network of survey triangulation points for the entire country beginning in 1905.

Here’s the story:

One popular trail in Gatineau Park is the King Mountain trail accessible from the Champlain Parkway with a deceptively pastoral looking parking lot. Walk the circular trail though, and you’ll find lots of up and down amply rewarded by some of the best lookout views in the park.

It was King Mountain that William Lyon Mackenzie King first visited before he began amassing his estate at Kingsmere some years later. But King Mountain was already named before William Lyon Mackenzie King ever showed up and even more curious is that as you walk the King Mountain trail you’ll pass a monument that wouldn’t be there had it not been for a third King, William Frederick King who in 1905 chose the place for the very first geodetic triangulation point in Canada.

You’ve seen survey crews before, setting up their tripods and marking out exactly where a road will go or perhaps the edge of a property line. These crews make careful measurements so that people can tell exactly where a point is on the earth’s surface; so your fence isn’t on my land for instance. The key to this accuracy is that survey crews measure where a point is relative to somewhere else that they already know. Until King Mountain in 1905 there was no place in Canada for surveyors to start from.

William Frederick King changed all that when he had his guys build a small tower on King Mountain. From there he could see his office on Carling Avenue (the Dominion Observatory) and triangulate between it and sites in Masham, Wakefield and Buckingham. Eventually from there points for triangulation spread all across Canada.

This was an important enough achievement that in 1929 King Mountain was designated a National Historic Site and a monument was built to celebrate the fact. So, from a Canadian surveyor’s perspective, King Mountain is the centre of the universe. Because Parks Canada administers the list of National Historic Sites but doesn’t administer the site itself, it is a little difficult to find reference to King Mountain on the Parks Canada website; this unfortunately is true of many many other historic sites.

Here’s what the NCC Plaque says (I  think it’s a little simplisitc, don’t you?)

A Shrine to Surveying in Canada

From here you have the best view of the entire region. If you need convincing, just read the inscription on the monument erected on this site!

This unobstructed view of the whole area prompted the installation of Canada’s first triangulation point, on the summit of King Mountain. At a glance you can see the cities of Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, and Ottawa and it’s suburbs.

Here’s what the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada says on its plaque

Geodetic Survey of Canada

By the accurate determination of points on the earth’s surface, a geodetic survey establishes a framework upon which to base detailed surveys. Although geodetic work was carried out sporadically in Canada during the late 19^th century, a systematic programme was not begun until July 1905, when the first triangulation station was erected atop King Mountain by a field party under the direction of C. A. Bigger, assistant to Dominion Astronomer W. F. King, who was in charge of the operation. In April 1909 the Geodetic Survey of Canada was created by order-in-council and King was appointed Superintendent.

And from their website: Date Designated: 1929, Plaque status: Plaqued in 1930

The Ottawa Citizenc overed the unveiling of the monument in the news of September 2, 1931

Unveiling Tablet To First Geodetic Survey in Canada

Aylmer East Branch Quebec Women’s Institute Arranging Ceremony for Saturday Afternoon

Of Particular local interest is the ceremony being arranged for Saturday September 5 by the Aylmer East Branch of the Quebec Women’s Institute  in connection with the unveiling of the memorial on King Mountatin to mark the first geodetic survey station in the Dominion.

This memorial, taking the form of a bronze tablet mounted on a rubble-stone cairn, was erected last year by the department of the Interior on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. At this point 1,125 feet above sea level, was pmmenced in 1905 the triangular system of the Geodetic Survey of Canada, forming the basis of surveys for all purpose, topographical, engineering and cadastral, under the direction of the late Dr. W. F. King C.M.G.

The unveiling ceremonies will be held on the property of Michael P. Mulvihill, Mountain road, who donated the site for the memorial, and will commence at 2:30 p.m., easter daylight time.

The program follows:

Welcome address F. Ferris, mayor, South Hull; invocation, Rev. Father Stanton, Chelsea; unveiling, Mrs. G. E.  Radmore, president, Aylmer East Institute; Nationial Anthem; addresses by Brig.-Gen E.A. Cruikshank, chairman, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada; Mrs’ Laura Rose Stephen, Ottawa and Mr. Noel J. Ogilvie, director, Geodetic Survey of Canada.

A more complete history of the Geodetic Survey can be found here.

This feature of King Mountain is also the subject of an article by Duncan Marshall in Volume 36 of Up The Gatineau, the newsleter of the Gatineau Valley Historical Society.