History
Construction of Upper Canada Village began in 1958 as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway project, which required the permanent flooding of ten communities in the area, known as The Lost Villages. Upper Canada Village was a part of the project's heritage preservation plan. Many of the buildings in Upper Canada Village were transported directly from the villages to be flooded.
The park, owned and operated by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission, was opened to the public in 1961.
Other buildings from the Lost Villages were moved to Ault Park, where they comprise a living museum run by the Lost Villages Historical Society.
The park also incorporates a memorial to the Battle of Crysler's Farm, a War of 1812 battle which also took place on land submerged by the Seaway project.
In 2009, approximately thirty-nine costumed historical interpreters (blacksmiths, weavers, millers, coopers, etc.) were dismissed as part of a controversial re-focusing of Upper Canada Village by St. Lawrence Parks Commission management.
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—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
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