Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

History

Supervisor

MacEachern, Alan

Abstract

During the early twentieth century, waterbed aggregate mining in the Great Lakes supplied sand and gravel for infrastructure development in the lakes’ shoreline communities. This thesis explores commercial dredging and its impacts at Lake Erie's Pelee Island and Point Pelee, and along the St. Clair River. The mostly transnational activity produced shoreline erosion that threatened agricultural operations, and sand suckers, the dredges that performed the mining, came to symbolize American capitalist exploitation in southwestern Ontario. Disputes arose over the extent of the erosion and affected relations between governments at all levels. Using government and business records, I argue that the Ontario government’s resolution of the crisis by extending a land-based regulatory framework into an already fragmented waterbody regulatory system only exacerbated the situation. Meanwhile, practical efforts to protect shorelines, including scientific study of shoreline processes, sparked a shift in the understanding of freshwater ecology from atomistic to holistic, which helped to end mining in Canada’s western Lake Erie.

Summary for Lay Audience

During the early twentieth century, waterbed aggregate mining in the Great Lakes supplied sand and gravel for infrastructure development in the lakes’ shoreline communities. This thesis explores commercial dredging and its impacts at Lake Erie's Pelee Island and Point Pelee, and along the St. Clair River. The mostly transnational activity produced shoreline erosion that threatened agricultural operations, and sand suckers, the dredges that performed the mining, came to symbolize American capitalist exploitation in southwestern Ontario. Disputes arose over the extent of the erosion and affected relations between governments at all levels. Using government and business records, I argue that the Ontario government’s resolution of the crisis by extending a land-based regulatory framework into an already fragmented waterbody regulatory system only exacerbated the situation. Meanwhile, practical efforts to protect shorelines, including scientific study of shoreline processes, sparked a shift in the understanding of freshwater ecology from a series of independently functioning parts to a unified system with interrelated parts, which helped to end mining in Canada’s western Lake Erie.

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