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41 plaques found that match your criteria
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William Pope 1811-1902
William Pope grew up in the lush countryside of southern England and studied painting at the Academy of Art, London. Reports of abundant wildlife drew the keen sportsman and naturalist to Upper Canada in 1834. After three extended visits, he settled permanently with his family near Port Ryerse in 1859. Financially independent, Pope spent his days hunting, sketching and painting the local flora and fauna. His watercolours of birds are compared to those of John... -
Long Point Portage
This portage, which crossed the isthmus joining Long Point to the mainland, was used by travelers in small craft following the north shore of Lake Erie in order to avoid the open waters and the length of the journey around the Point. Although used earlier by the Indians, the portage was first recorded in 1670 by two Sulpician missionaries, Dollier de Casson and René de Bréhant de Galinée. For about 150 years traffic increased over... -
Union of the North West and Hudson's Bay Companies
In the late eighteenth century, most of the fur traders using the Ottawa River-Great Lakes canoe route into the interior of North America belonged to the North West Company, which used Fort William as its inland headquarters. To the north, the rival Hudson's Bay Company exported furs by ship from its sub-Arctic posts. By 1810, both companies were expanding their operations inland into the fur-rich Athabaska area. Their intensifying competition provoked violent clashes between contending... -
Niven's Meridian
The surveying of the line which intersects Highway No. 11 here (survey mile post 162) was the first step taken by the Ontario government in the exploration and development of this region. During the 1890s, interest in Ontario's northern mineral, forest and land resources increased rapidly. Accordingly, Alexander Niven (1836-1911) ran an exploration line to James Bay by extending northward what was then the boundary between the Algoma and Nipissing Districts. In 1896, he surveyed... -
Thomas James and the Search for the Northwest Passage
In May 1631, Thomas James set sail from Bristol in search of a northwest passage to the Orient. After an arduous journey through Hudson Strait and across Hudson Bay, he proceeded southeast, exploring the bay that now bears his name. Convinced that no northwest passage existed there and alarmed by the rapid weather change, James anchored off Charlton Island, sank his ship to prevent its being smashed by ice and prepared for the first deliberate... -
Henry Hudson and the Search for the Northwest Passage
In 1610, Henry Hudson, a renowned English navigator, commenced his second voyage in search of a northwest route to China. With great daring and resolution he navigated the treacherous waters of Hudson Strait and descended into Hudson Bay. Believed to be the first European to explore this vast inland sea, Hudson laid the basis for English claims to much of present-day Canada. His accomplishments were marred, however, by discord on the voyage. Having prolonged his... -
Whitefish Lake Post
The Hudson's Bay Company had established a fur trading post on the western shore of Whitefish Lake by 1824. It was hoped that a depot adjacent to the portage route to Wakami Lake would help prevent independent traders in Michigan, Wisconsin and southern Ontario from encroaching on trade north of the French River. In this, the post was reasonably successful. In 1887, the Company dismantled the building and moved it here to Naughton (Walden) so... -
Wolseley Expedition 1870, The
In August 1870, a force of British regulars and Canadian militia comprising some 1,200 men commanded by Colonel Garnet Wolseley arrived in this area en route to the Red River to establish Canadian authority within the present province of Manitoba. The previous year the Hudson's Bay Company had agreed to transfer control of its western territories to Canada, and some local inhabitants, fearing loss of their lands and interference with their mode of existence, had... -
Umfreville's Exploration 1784
A fur trader, Edward Umfreville, passed here in July 1784. He had been commissioned by the North West Company to discover an alternative to the traditional canoe route to the West via the Grand Portage and Pigeon River, which had come under American control. Leaving Lake Superior, he ascended the Nipigon River and struck westward from Lake Nipigon via an intricate course that included the Wabinosh River, Sturgeon Lake, Lac Seul and the English River... -
Grey Owl 1888-1938
As a youth in England, Archibald Belaney was fascinated with wildlife and tales of North American Indians. At seventeen he came to Canada and soon began living among the Ojibwa on Bear Island. He adopted native dress and customs, and worked as a woodsman, fire ranger and trapper in northeastern Ontario. In the 1920s, Belaney became concerned that the lumber industry and sportsmen were plundering the northern wilderness and threatening the survival of native culture... -
Jean Nicollet
Nicollet arrived in New France from his native Normandy in 1618-19 to work in the fur trade. To help build alliances with the native peoples, Samuel de Champlain sent Nicollet to live in an Algonquin camp for two years. The young Frenchman then came to this vicinity and lived among the Nipissing for eight years. He learned the language and customs of his hosts, gained their trust, and acted as an interpreter in dealings with... -
Lac La Pluie House 1818-1903
The Hudson's Bay Company established Lac La Pluie House on this site to compete for furs with the North West Company's Fort Lac La Pluie. After the two companies merged in 1821, only Lac La Pluie House continued in operation. It was renamed Fort Frances in 1830 after a visit by HBC Governor Sir George Simpson and Lady Frances Simpson. The post traded with local Ojibwa for furs, wild rice, and isinglass (obtained from sturgeon)... -
Jacques de Noyon 1668-1745
The coureur de bois Jacques de Noyon was born at Trois-Rivières and raised at Boucherville, near Montreal. In 1688, he led a trading party north of Lake Superior and explored further west than any Frenchman of his time. He ascended the Kaministiquia River, crossed Dog Lake and, through several portages, reached Rainy Lake. Near Fort Frances, on Rainy River, Noyon built a post where he spent the winter. He traveled on to Lake of the... -
Founding of Killarney, The
Etienne-Augustin de la Morandière, fur trader and founder of Killarney, settled here in 1820, when this locality, on the voyageurs' canoe route to the Northwest, was known as Shebahonaning ("narrow channel"). A substantial trading establishment, built by La Morandière on Drummond Island after the War of 1812, was destroyed by fire in 1817, and he moved here permanently after trading for a time at Flat Point, Bay of Islands. La Morandière raised crops and brought... -
Great Dog Portage
This portage was one of the steepest on the Kaministiquia canoe route between Lake Superior and the West. First recorded in 1688 by French explorer Jacques de Noyon, it was abandoned after 1732 in favour of the shorter and easier Grand Portage-Pigeon River route. The latter came under American control following the treaty of 1783, and about 1803 traffic was resumed on the older route. Over 1½ miles in length and involving an ascent of... -
Samuel de Champlain
Born at Brouage about 1570, this world-renowned cartographer and colonizer sailed from Honfleur in March 1603 on the first of more than twenty Atlantic crossings between France and Canada. Five years later, he established Quebec and thereby laid the foundation of the French empire in North America. An intrepid explorer, he journeyed into the interior of the continent (1613-1615), penetrating much of what is now Ontario. His account of these travels provided the first recorded... -
Huron Fish Weirs, The
In the adjacent Narrows joining Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching are the remains of Indian fish weirs. They were noted by Samuel de Champlain when he passed here on September 1, 1615, with a Huron war party en route to attack the Iroquois south of Lake Ontario. The weirs consisted of large number of stakes driven into the bottom of the Narrows, with openings at which nets were placed to catch fish. These weirs (claies) caused... -
Gateway to Huronia, The
From this lookout may be seen the bay which, during the first half of the 17th century, formed the western terminus of the 800-mile route connecting New France with the Huron settlements. Heavily laden canoes ascended the Ottawa, surmounted the rapids of the Mattawa and French Rivers, crossed Lake Nipissing and traversed the island-studded channels of Georgian Bay. Over these waters passed Recollet and Jesuit missionaries, Etienne Brûlé, Samuel de Champlain and other heroic figures of the French regime. -
Champlain's Journey of 1613
The Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain, made the first of two voyages into what is now Ontario in 1613. He travelled up the Ottawa River seeking the northern sea (Hudson Bay) which one of his five companions, Nicolas de Vignau, claimed to have seen. The expedition struck inland above Lac des Chats and followed a chain of small lakes towards present-day Cobden. Here, on June 7th, Champlain visited with the Algonkin chief Nibachis... -
Champlain's War Party 1615
In September, 1615, a small party of Frenchmen commanded by Samuel de Champlain, and some five hundred Huron Indians, passed down the Trent River on their way to attack the Iroquois who lived in what is now northern New York State. Joined by a band of Algonkians, they skirted the eastern end of Lake Ontario and journeyed southward to a palisaded Onondaga village near the present site of Syracuse, N.Y. Champlain was wounded, the attack... -
Nipigon Canoe Route, The
Indigenous peoples who hunted and traded here thousands of years ago developed a water route by which they could travel from Lake Superior to James Bay via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people living in the Lake Nipigon region were part of an intricate system of trade that extended to the Atlantic coast. In the 1600s, native people began to share their knowledge of canoe travel on North American... -
Champlain in Ontario, 1615
In April 1615, Samuel de Champlain (c.1574-1635) embarked from Honfleur, upon his seventh voyage to New France. Upon arrival in Quebec, Champlain was informed of increasing tensions with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) the traditional rival of his Anishinabe (Algonquian) and Wendat (Huron) allies. He travelled west to Huronia on a diplomatic and military expedition where he visited several villages including Cahiagué, a large and important Wendat settlement. With a mixed force of 400-500 First Nations warriors... -
Moose Factory — Môsonîwi-Miništik
Môsonîwililiw oral tradition describes an ancestral couple, lowered here from a sky world, who were shown how to survive and thrive by animals who also gifted their lives for this purpose. The Creator’s laws, including honesty, courage and šawelihcikewin — sharing with gratitude and generosity — were reinforced over generations by lived experience of the benefits or consequences of upholding or ignoring these principles. After receiving hospitality at this Môsonîwililiw summer gathering site, Hudson’s Bay... -
Canoe Route to the West, The
Here, when the canoe was the principal means of travel, explorers, voyageurs, missionaries and others bound for the West, left the Ottawa River and followed the Mattawa River to Lake Nipissing, the French River and the upper Great Lakes. For over 200 years, the Mattawa River formed part of the route linking the St. Lawrence River settlements with the vast interior of the continent. Among the historic figures who passed here were: Samuel De Champlain... -
Canoe Route to the West, The
The French River formed a vital link in the historic canoe route via the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers and Lake Nipissing, which connected the settlements on the St. Lawrence with the upper Great Lakes and the far West. Most of the famous Canadian explorers, missionaries and fur traders of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries followed this waterway. Here passed: Brûlé, discoverer of Lake Huron; Champlain, "Father of New France"; the Jesuit martyrs, Brébeuf...