Winner
2003
Waterwalker Film Festival
Heritage Award

A beautiful film showing the many faces of the Petawawa River. Jewel of Ontario talks
about the river in way that are rarely shown to us. It evinces the early days of the European
incursions into its heart with the building of dams and chutes to float the logs down It interviews
some of the old timers like Ed Charrette who still remembered, at 93, his early years loading
logs on the river at Radiant Lake. It talks of and shows some of the wildlife that can be seen in a
descent of the river. It gives ample evidence of both high and low water conditions for the
whitewater enthusiast and finally it reveals the different seasons of the river.

In 1981 George Drought descended the full length of the Petawawa River with his son
Richard. It started a fascination with the river that has continued to this day. He has run it in all
conditions and his accumulated knowledge of the river led the Friends of Algonquin to contract
him to write The Petawawa River Whitewater Guide. That was back in 1993. Since then he has
continued his travels and explorations both alone and with his wife Barbara Burton in all seasons
of the year resulting in the production of this video “Jewel of Ontario”