Carbide Willson Ruins Hike in Gatineau Park

The easy Carbide Willson Ruins hike in Gatineau Park is particularly lovely in spring. If you can do the hike in May, you’ll find the forest carpeted with trilliums – and the birds busy singing their hearts out. But the hike to the ruins is also a great one for fall. Colours in Gatineau Park have a habit of dazzling those who visit. I think this is a hike that will feed your soul.

If you’re a photographer, I’d also recommend a hike to the Carbide Willson Ruins. Nature is taking over the ruins and it’s interesting to see. You could be there for hours, checking out the ruins from all the different angles.

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Carbide Willson Ruins hike summary

• It’s a family-friendly 3.3 km (2.1 miles) return hike.
• Allow an hour or more. It’s a great place for a picnic and photographers will find plenty of material to interest them.
• Don’t forget your binoculars as there are lots of birds to be seen.
• Even though it’s a short hike carry the 10 essentials.
• If it’s black fly or mosquito season you’d be smart to take insect repellent.
• Please don’t climb on the ruins! 
• Dogs are permitted to visit in summer if on a leash.

Carbide Willson Ruins Hike

I was lucky to be part of a group that had signed up for a nature tour while at an Ottawa conference. One full day was set aside to visit Ottawa’s fabulous Canadian Museum of Nature, followed by a hike to the Thomas ‘Carbide’ Willson Ruins in Gatineau Park.

It’s an easy 3.25 km return hike to the ruins by way of a gently rolling trail that skirts a small section of Meech Lake. Running through hardwood forest, the trail is dog friendly as well – providing they’re on a leash.

From the parking lot take the road past O’Brien House. Meet up with the Trans Canada Trail and cross the bridge between Meech and Little Meech Lakes. Continue on trail #36 until you reach the turnoff to the Thomas Carbide Willson ruins and fertilizer plant. 

The Carbide Willson Ruins themselves, situated by a river are a photographer’s delight. Formerly the electrical generating station for the fertilizer plant, they are being taken over by nature.

History of the Carbide Willson ruins 

Thomas Leopold “Carbide”Willson, the first person to own a car in Ottawa, a successful businessman and a pioneer of electrochemistry, settled in the Gatineau area after purchasing 460 acres of land at Meech Lake for a summer home in 1907. It is here that he learned to condense phosphoric acid to produce phosphoric fertilizer. He ended up with with over 70 patents to his name!

Willson died in New York City in 1915 on the street from a heart attack – while on a visit to raise new venture capital.

According to the sign beside the ruins:

He earned his nickname “Carbide,” by developing a method for the production of calcium carbide. This substance is harmless when dry but produces acetylene – an extremely flammable gas, when damped with water. With Wilson’s process, acetylene could be safely stored in the form of inert calcium carbide.

Originally there were three buildings that included an acid condensation tower, a generating station and a dam. The acid condensation tower was destroyed by a fire so only the foundation remains today. When you visit, its the ruins of the former mill and part of the power station that are all that remain.