by Vance Gutzman
As work continues on a research project aimed at uncovering the legacy of Deep River’s original Indigenous residents, concerns have been raised about a survey conducted by the town which included questions regarding the future of the log cabin at the yacht and tennis club.
A team of researchers from George Brown College, in Toronto, began work last year on a study called “The Silent Community: A case study in Indigenous Culture and Heritage Preservation using 3D Laser scanning and surveys in the Ottawa Valley.”
Steffanie Adams, a professor at George Brown College’s School of Architectural Studies, is the study’s principal investigator, and also one of the grandchildren of David and Mary Adams, who raised eight of their 12 children at the cabin in question.
The researchers are trying to come up with as much information as they can to paint a picture of what the Indian village by the Ottawa River looked like prior to the creation of the Deep River townsite.
The Adams cabin is the only structure still remaining from that era, but there were many other Indigenous families whose homes dotted the shoreline.
The study, which will help support local First Nation history by recreating it through 3D modelling, coupled with both augmented and virtual reality, sparked great public interest earlier this year, during a social media presentation hosted by the Seniors’ Friendship Club social on the researchers’ early findings.
The study has also sparked keen interest from the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO), who sent a letter to the town earlier this month asserting the municipality has no role in deciding the future of the Adams cabin…
- For the full story, pick up a copy of this week’s NRT. To get the NRT delivered directly to your mail box or inbox each week, subscribe here.
(Photo: The late Virginia Adams Hunt wrote a series of articles remembering her childhood growing up in the cabin at the Deep River yacht and tennis club. The articles were published in the NRT in 2006 and again in 2020 under the title, “River of Time.”)
