Upper Ottawa Improvement Company : The Upper Ottawa Improvement Company (ICO) was established in 1868 by the Hon. John Hamilton, A.H. Baldwin, Levi Young, H.F. Bronson, William G. Perley and E.B. Eddy to act as a common carrier for all lumber companies transporting wood down the Ottawa River. Prior to that date, lumber companies competed to drive their logs down the river, resulting in confusion and costly delays. When the ICO received its federal charter in 1870, the company assumed responsibility for the slides and booms previously constructed by the Department of Public Works. The ICO was also granted the right to construct new works and acquire any property and equipment deemed necessary to facilitate the transmission of logs. In 1888, a special Act of Parliament extended the company's jurisdiction on the Ottawa River from the head of Lake Temiscaming to the Chaudiere Falls.
The development of the ICO was guided by its Board of Directors. Among the lumber barons who served on the board were J. R. Booth, A. Gilmour, E. B. Eddy, H. F. Bronson, J. A. Gillies, A. Fraser and F. L. Blackburn. Under the management of Secretary-Treasurer G.B. Greene, the ICO became a powerful influence along the River. ICO log booms physically dominated the river, their boats provided transportation to communities along the river and they employed hundreds of workers from small towns and villages in both Ontario and Quebec. This influence extended beyond the Ottawa River when the ICO began to manage the Coulonge and Crow River Boom Co. (established 1895) and the Quinze Rapids Improvement Company (established 1898). Although technically separate companies, both were owned by many of the same men who controlled the ICO.
At the time of the ICO's establishment, sawn lumber shipped to the United States was the mainstay of the lumber economy in the Ottawa Valley. Until 1910, the ICO moved only sawlogs down the Ottawa River. After that date, ICO operations expanded to accommodate both sawlogs and pulpwood deliveries to local mills.
ICO operations remained remarkably unchanged until after the Second World War. The retirement of E. C. Woolsey (Greene's successor as ICO Secretary) in 1946 ended an era of nineteenth century management practices. Operations also changed dramatically with the construction of water flow controls and six hydro-electric dams on the Ottawa River. The company could no longer drive logs down the river and relied instead on new equipment and techniques to tow and raft them.
In 1982, the company changed its name to ICO Inc., and shortly thereafter moved its head office from Ottawa to Portage du Fort, Québec. By this time the lumber industry in the Ottawa Valley was already in decline. After 1986, the ICO transported only pulpwood, and volumes of wood shipped continued to decrease. The last booms were floated down the river in 1991, and the ICO began to wind up its operations in 1999.
