Almost 100 years to the day after the arrival of Wright, the Chaudière was devastated by the fire of April 26-27, 1900, which consumed most of Hull, crossed the Chaudière Bridge and levelled a fifth of Ottawa, leaving 15,000 people homeless and penniless. The massive piles of lumber stocks and mills and other wooden buildings quickly succumbed to the flames, delivering a fateful blow to a lumber industry already in decline by that time. Ever tenacious, Booth and Eddy rebuilt immediately and continued on; for example, the massive Booth Board Mill was built in 1912 and the Eddy Powerhouse in 1913.

Heading image credit: National Library Archives Canada – C-002991