Menu
Search results
38 plaques found that match your criteria
-
Explorers of Muskoka and Haliburton
Following the War of 1812, expeditions traversed the wilderness between Lakes Simcoe and Muskoka and the Ottawa River, seeking a route across Upper Canada less open to attack than by the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. In 1819, Lieutenant J.P. Catty, R.E., crossed by way of Balsam and Kashagawigamog Lakes and the York and Madawaska Rivers. Lieutenant Henry Briscoe, R.E., and Ensign Durnford, R.E., ascended the Muskoka in 1826, proceeding via Lake of Bays, Lake... -
Grand Portage, The
Circumventing 21 miles of falls and rapids, this portage ran some nine miles from Lake Superior to a point upstream on the opposite side of the Pigeon River. It was first mentioned in 1722 by a French trader named Jean Pachot. Following its use in 1732 by La Vérendrye, it replaced the Kaministiquia Route as the canoe route to the West. About 1767, the Grand Portage became a rendezvous for Canadian fur traders and, after... -
Portage Road, The
This road follows the general route of the Indian portage from Lake Simcoe to Balsam Lake. The portage was first mapped by the Honourable John Collins, Deputy Surveyor General of Canada, when he surveyed the Trent route from the head of the Bay of Quinte to Balsam Lake and thence by way of Lake Simcoe to Georgian Bay in 1785. The Trent route was used by Champlain and his Huron allies in their expedition against... -
Rapids of the Upper Ottawa, The
For over two centuries, the Ottawa River was part of the main canoe route to the West. Some of the river's most spectacular and dangerous rapids were located immediately downriver from here: the Rapide de la Veillée, the Trou and the Rapide des Deux Rivières. Further on lay the legendary Rapide de la Roche Capitain. In 1800, the explorer Daniel Harmon counted fourteen crosses commemorating voyageurs who had drowned in its swirling waters. By 1950, with the construction of the Des Joachims generating station, these rapids and their portages had been submerged in the dam's headpond, Holden Lake. -
Sieur de La Vérendrye 1685-1749
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, was born at Trois Rivières and saw military service in North America and Europe before entering the fur trade. While stationed at Lake Nipigon in 1727, he heard stories of the "Western Sea" which, Indians said, lay somewhere beyond Lake of the Woods. During the next twenty years, in attempting to reach this sea, he personally explored much of what is now northwestern Ontario, southern Manitoba and... -
Simon Fraser 1776-1862
This famous fur trader and explore, son of a Loyalist officer, was born in what is now Vermont and came to Canada in 1784. He entered the fur trade with the North West Company in 1792 and, in 1805, was placed in charge of operations west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1808, while searching for a water route to the Pacific, Fraser descended the turbulent river that bears his name. The skill and daring required... -
Horatio Emmons Hale 1817-1896
One of North America's pioneer ethnologists and linguists, Hale practised law in Clinton 1856-1896. Born in New Hampshire, he graduated from Harvard in 1837, and accompanied the Wilkes Expedition to the Pacific, 1838-1842. His contribution to the 'Narrative' of that voyage is one of the basic sources for Polynesian ethnology. Hale discovered that the Tutelos near Brantford, fugitives from North Carolina, belonged to the Siouan family and identified the Cherokees of the Carolinas as linguistically... -
John McLean 1799-1890
In this house from 1847 to 1857 lived the noted explorer and author John McLean, who was born in Scotland and joined the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. In 1838 he became the first white man to cross the Labrador peninsula from Ungava Bay to Hamilton Inlet and in 1839, discovered the Grand Falls of the Hamilton River, one of the world's greatest cataracts. His book, 'Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory", is an important source of information on the Canadian Fur Trade. -
La Vase Portages
The historic La Vase (Mud) Portages began at the head of the nearby pond. These three portages, connecting Trout Lake and the lower La Vase River, were linked by small navigable streams and ponds. They formed part of the great canoe route via the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, Lake Nipissing and the French River, leading to the upper Great Lakes and the West, which was followed by the early explorers, missionaries and fur traders. Among... -
Mattawa House 1837
Trading in furs at this junction of historic canoe routes probably began during the French regime. At intervals during the 1820s and 1830s, Chief Trader John Silveright, commanding the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Coulonge, sent men to trade at Mattawa. In 1837, primarily to counteract trading by lumbermen, the company established a permanent post there. Its original site was chosen by the company's governor, George Simpson, but before 1843, it was moved to... -
René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle at Cataracoui
Early in his celebrated career, the explorer La Salle played a principal role in the expansion of the French fur trade into the Lake Ontario region. In 1673 he arranged a meeting between Governor-General Frontenac, who wanted to shift the centre of the fur trade away from Montreal, and representatives of the Iroquois at Cataracoui, the site of present day Kingston. Placed in command of Fort Frontenac, the post the governor ordered built here, La... -
Voyage of the Griffon 1679, The
First ship to sail Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, the "Griffon", probably 40-45 feet long, was built by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, several miles above Niagara Falls in 1679. La Salle came to New France in 1667, became seigneur of Cataracoui (Kingston), engaged in the fur trade and sought a western route to China. In August, 1679, the "Griffon" sailed from the Niagara River with La Salle and a company of about thirty-three... -
La Salle at the Head of the Lake
In 1669, René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle, intent on reaching the Ohio River in order "not to leave to another the honour of finding the way to the Southern Sea, and thereby the route to China", set out on the first of his many journeys of exploration. Accompanied by the Sulpician missionaries Dollier and Galinée, he left Montreal in July and reached Burlington Bay at the head of Lake Ontario some two months later. La...