9 things you didn’t know about Smiths Falls, Ontario

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Less than an hour’s drive southwest of Ottawa, the town of Smiths Falls has a fascinating history and some cool sights to see. Did you know these nine quirky facts about Smiths Falls?

Disclosure: I received the picnic box mentioned in this story free of charge from Smiths Falls Tourism, and I enjoyed an afternoon on a houseboat courtesy of Le Boat. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Smiths Falls has a railway museum

Smiths Falls was once a hopping railway hub, with multiple rail lines linking it to many communities in Ontario and Quebec. The first train—connecting Brockville to Smiths Falls—chugged through in 1859. By 1916, one Smiths Falls railroad yard featured 46 buildings, including a roundhouse and a tea warehouse. At one point, the town had busy train stations for both the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Canadian National Railway (CNR). The CPR station was even home to Smiths Falls’ only 24-hour restaurant.

The rise of the automobile led to a serious decline in passenger traffic, and the CNR station closed in 1979. However, a group of enterprising local train fans saved the building, renovated it and reopened it as the wonderful Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. When it’s open, visitors can see lovingly restored engines and rolling stock, check out the vintage waiting room and telegraph office, and shop for rail-related souvenirs and books. During special events, you can even enjoy a ride on one of the vintage trains. (Note that special events are currently on hold due to COVID-19.)

The town is a base for a posh British houseboat company

U.K.-based Le Boat invested at least $16 million to set up its North American base in Smiths Falls in 2018, and the Ontario government kicked in another $2 million. If you think that sounds like a lot of money for houseboats, you’re right—but these houseboats are seriously swanky. Onboard perks include USB ports in the cabins, a well-equipped galley kitchen, and an outdoor deck kitted out with a sink and a barbecue hotplate, which you can enjoy while puttering along the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston.

Smiths Falls has ties to the Beatles

In 1963 and 1964, if you bought a Beatles record anywhere in North America, it came from Smiths Falls. In fact, the first-ever Beatles record pressed in North America—the single “Love Me Do”—was made at the RCA Victor plant here, and the factory churned out more than a million Beatles LPs, EPs and 45s in that two year-period.

The train lines mentioned above carried the records far and wide, stoking interest in the Fab Four for a year before the band showed up on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The plant closed in 1979, but its role in the Beatles’ rise is documented in the book The Beatles in Canada: The Origins of Beatlemania by Piers Hemmingsen. This chapter in Smiths Falls history is also covered in an Ottawa Citizen column by Kelly Egan.

You can raise a glass of local beer

A group of friends founded 4 Degrees Brewing Company in their hometown of Smiths Falls in 2012. Today, the craft brewery makes a range of beers, with names evoking local stories. North of 7 and South of 7, for instance, reference nearby Highway 7. Frost & Wood ’55 pays tribute to a Smiths Falls company once famed for its farm implements and munitions. And Old Slys ’69 name-checks one of the local locks on the Rideau Canal.

Smiths Falls has a fabulous bakery

I discovered C’Est Tout Bakery earlier this year, when the local tourism office arranged for me to try out the town’s Picnic Smiths Falls program. All sorts of local restaurants participated in the initiative, which allows visitors to pre-order packed picnics and pick them up when they arrive in town. I chose the box from C’Est Tout, and I’m glad I did. At a picnic table overlooking the Rideau Canal, I happily dug into the tasty wrap and salad included in the box, but the pièces de résistance were the personal-sized caramel tart and raspberry cheesecake (see photo above). They were so, so good. The picnic program has wrapped up for this year, but the town hopes to offer it again in 2021. And, of course, C’Est Tout is open year round.

You can hike the Cataraqui Trail from Smiths Falls to Strathcona

Smiths Falls is the beginning—or the end, depending on your point of view—of the Cataraqui Trail, yet another legacy of the town’s days as a railway hub. In 1997, the CNR donated this abandoned railway right-of-way to the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority. It is now a 104-kilometre recreational trail between Smiths Falls and Strathcona (near Napanee). In summer, it is open to hikers, cyclists and horseback riders; in winter, it becomes a snowmobiling and cross-country ski trail.

There’s a great view from an old mill

The Rideau Canal Visitor Centre, located in a 19th-century stone mill building in downtown Smiths Falls, is also the headquarters for the Rideau Canal National Historic Site. Informative displays give you lots of insight into the history of the canal. You should definitely check them out, but make sure to follow the signs to the top-floor observation room, too. It gives you a great view of the Rideau Canal, the locks and the town. (Note that the centre is currently closed to visitors due to COVID-19.)

Fort Hemlock has a fascinating story

A red-brick building at 28 Beckwith Street South looks completely ordinary—unless you happen to spot the stone on the second floor inscribed as follows: “Fort Hemlock, Erected 1868, Rebuilt by Jas Gould, 1877, Jus Vincit.” The Latin translates as “Justice Triumphs.” So what’s the story?

Accounts vary, but the gist seems to be that a man named Michael Carroll, who ran a grocery store in the adjacent building in the 1860s, used what was then a vacant lot to store supplies. The owner of the lot, one Jason Gould, took issue with that. To stake his claim to the lot, he built a small shack of hemlock wood. A mob knocked it down. The riot act was read. Like one of the Three Little Pigs, Gould rebuilt—this time, in brick. That building stands to this day—despite a possible plot to blow it up during its construction. A local wag nicknamed it Fort Hemlock, and the name stuck. You can read a 1904 account of the whole fandango on the Lanark County Genealogical Society’s website.

There’s a theatre in an old train station

I know—another rail connection! This time, it’s the Station Theatre, housed in what was once the CPR station in Smiths Falls. It took 11 years of fundraising and renovation before the theatre opened in 2010. Today, it hosts movies, productions by the Smiths Falls Community Theatre troupe, and other events.

Smiths Falls accommodations

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If you enjoyed these bits of Smiths Falls trivia, you might also like these similar posts about other communities in Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais:

• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Carleton Place
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Almonte
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Merrickville
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wakefield
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Brockville
• 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Ottawa

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As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.