This photo shows a portion of the 1.5 km channel that was excavated to link Upper Rideau Lake with Newboro Lake. It turned out to be one of the most difficult challenges in the construction of the canal. The problem: granite. Every meter had to be hand-drilled, packed with black powder and detonated. The rumble was hauled away with wheelbarrows and carts and the hole- drilling would start again. Several civilian contractors went bankrupt in their attempts to do the work. Death and injury from blasting accidents were commonplace and the area was plagued with outbreaks of malaria every summer.
In the late 1960s, Chaffeys Lock became the focal point in a heated controversy about saving the heritage character of this 19th Century canal. Chaffeys was slated to undergo a modernization upgrade similar to Newboro. Local residents, many with family ties to the canal going back several generations, undertook a campaign to preserve to the canal.
In the 1960s the Department of Transport began work to "modernize" the Rideau Canal. Residents from the community at Chaffeys Mills led a campaign to stop the modernization initiative. They argued that the Rideau Canal was a national treasure and rather than destroying the historic structures in the name of modern efficiency the government should be preserving them. More individuals and heritage groups joined the campaign and in 1972, the Canadian government transferred jurisdiction of the canal to Parks Canada with the mandate to keep the canal operational and to preserve the heritage aspects of the waterway.
