Ottawa Valley
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The Ottawa Valley is the valley in Canada. It is the valley of the Ottawa River for the west-east portion of its path through the Canadian Shield from Mattawa to Ottawa. The valley is narrow at its western end, then becomes increasingly wide (mainly on the southern Ontario side of the river) as it progresses eastward.
Near the city of Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley merges with the St. Lawrence Valley to the south to create a delta of flat farmland stretching unbroken from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence River as far east as the island of Montreal, where the two rivers meet. This area is sometimes referred to as the "Lower Ottawa Valley", in contrast with the "Upper Ottawa Valley" west of Ottawa, but the name is not common, and most people think of the Ottawa Valley only as the upper portion.
Because the Canadian Shield comes nearly to the Ottawa River on the north (Quebec) side of the valley, most settlements and transportation routes are on the southern Ontario side. From west to east, the major Ottawa Valley communities are Mattawa, Deep River (with nearby Chalk River, the site of Canada's nuclear reactor program), Petawawa (a major Canadian military base), Pembroke (where Samuel de Champlain landed briefly), Renfrew, Arnprior, and Ottawa (the nation's capital). All but Renfrew are on the south shore of the Ottawa River and are also connected by the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 17) and a Canadian Pacific Railway line.
History
After the arrival of European settlers in North America, the first major industry of the Ottawa Valley was fur trading. The valley was part of the major cross-country route for French-Canadian Voyageurs, who would paddle canoes up the Ottawa River as far as Mattawa and then portage west through various rivers and lakes to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Later, lumber became the valley's major industry, and it is still important in the far western part where the valley is narrow and little farmland is available. Today, the vast majority of the valley's residents live at the eastern end Ottawa and its suburbs, where government and technology are major industries.
Language
English and French are both commonly spoken throughout the Ottawa Valley on both sides of the river. Regional English accents are rare in Canada, but because of its isolation (before the arrival of the railways) and through the mixture of French, Irish, and Scottish populations, the valley at one time developed a distinctive dialect referred to as the Ottawa Valley Twang. Many traces of it can still be heard today, especially in the valley's western portions.