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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... -
White Otter Castle
Woodsman Jimmy McOuat completed this house in 1915 when he was sixty years old. Ever since, people have wondered why and how he built it. McOuat claimed that, as a child in the Ottawa valley, he was once scolded "Ye'll never do no good! Ye'll die in a shack!" and that he resolved late in life to avoid such a fate. Single-handedly, he felled trees, winched them from the woods and hewed them square. With... -
Kenora Thistles, The
In January 1907, a hockey team from Kenora, comprising E. Giroux (goal), A.H. Ross (point), S.I. Griffis (cover point), T. Hooper (rover), W. McGimsie (centre), R. Beaudro (right wing) and T. Phillips (captain and left wing), defeated the Montreal Wanderers in two challenge games at Montreal to win the Stanley Cup. The team was coached and trained by J.A. Link. The trophy, emblematic of the Canadian championship, had been presented by the Governor General, Baron Stanley of Preston, in 1892. Kenora is the smallest town ever to win the Cup. -
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... -
Last Spike at Feist Lake
In the 1870s, Canada needed a reliable all-Canadian transportation route between Lake Superior and the western prairie territories it acquired in 1869. After promising a rail connection to British Columbia, the federal government started to build a railway between Thunder Bay and Red River in 1875. It took seven years to complete the 600 kilometre (375 mile) line. Thousands of workers battled mosquitoes and blackflies as they cut trees, blasted granite, bridged chasms and filled... -
Red Lake House
In the summer of 1790, the Hudson's Bay Company sent James Sutherland from Osnaburgh House to establish a post on Red Lake. Duncan Cameron of the North West Company was already trading there. Although competition in the fur trade was intense, at times violent, the traders on Red Lake stayed on friendly terms. By 1806, when the HBC closed Red Lake House, the post had been at five different locations on the lake. The HBC... -
Founding of the Red Lake Mining District, The
In 1924, two years after a discovery of gold by Gus McManus, the Ontario Department of Mines published a geological report on this district. Prospecting was thus encouraged, and in 1925 claims were staked by Lorne Howey and George McNeely. Financed through the efforts of Jack Hammell, Howey Gold Mines was incorporated in 1926, and production began in 1930. Although it ceased operations in 1941, successful mines were developed elsewhere within this region by other... -
Canada's Pioneer Airlines
In February 1926, J.V. Elliot and Harold Farrington, each flying a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", made the first in a series of passenger flights from here to the isolated Red Lake mining district. The following month, a Curtiss "Lark" flown by H.A. ("Doc") Oaks inaugurated a regular service from Sioux Lookout to Red Lake. That December, Oaks organized Western Canada Airways, whose aircraft were based at Hudson. One of the earliest airlines in Canada, it was... -
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... -
Kagawong Mill 1925
This building is a monument to two major Ontario resource industries. Built to process local spruce into pulp, it diverted water-power from the Kagawong River to drive its heavy machinery. Wet pulp was baled and shipped to Michigan to make Sears-Roebuck catalogues. The pulp mill closed with the onset of the Depression, but reopened in 1932 as a hydro-electric plant. Until 1949, it was the sold source of electrical power for Manitoulin Island. Ontario Hydro... -
Hudson's Bay Post 1856
In 1856, the Hudson's Bay Company, faced with decline in trade at La Cloche on the mainland, obtained permission to establish a post at Little Current. A substantial log building, this community's first European structure, was built near here in 1856-57 by George McTavish, the clerk in charge of La Cloche. However, opposition from some Indians and resident missionaries to what they considered encroachment on the Reserve caused the government to rescind the Company's license... -
Manitowaning Mission, The
In the 1830s, officials urged native peoples in Upper Canada to abandon seasonal fishing and hunting migrations and settle permanently in agricultural communities. To this end, the government established a mission at Manitowaning under the auspices of the Anglican Church in 1838. A school, houses and workshops for teaching trades were constructed. The mission encouraged farming, but crops were meagre. Few aboriginal people chose to settle permanently at Manitowaning, and in 1864 the mission was... -
Brent Crater, The
First recognized in 1951 from aerial photographs, the crater is a circular depression about two miles in diameter formed in Precambrian crystalline rocks. Geophysical and diamond drilling investigations show that the crater has a present depth of about 1,400 feet but is partly filled by sedimentary rocks with a thickness of 900 feet. The rocks beneath the crater floor are thoroughly fragmented over a depth of 2,000 feet. Like the similar New Quebec (Chubb) crater... -
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 de Belleborne c.1598-1642
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... -
Temagami Post 1834
The first Hudson's Bay post on Lake Timagami was established on the south shore of Timagami Island in 1834 under Chief Trader Richard Hardisty, the father-in-law of Lord Strathcona. It was essentially an outpost of the Company's larger establishment on Lake Timiskaming in the Ottawa Valley. Temagami (originally Timagami) was not a large centre of trade and, in its early days, was abandoned several times. However, in these instances, the consequent establishment of rival traders induced the Company to reopen the post. In the 1870s, it was moved to this site on Bear Island. -
Founding of Sturgeon Falls, The
The development of Sturgeon Falls began in 1881 with the arrival of Canadian Pacific Railway construction teams and the opening of a post office. About a year earlier, the community's first permanent settler, James Holditch, had acquired land here on the Sturgeon River about two miles north-east of a former Hudson's Bay Company post, which he later purchased. The erection of sawmills and the rapid growth of the lumbering and pulp-paper industries stimulated the development... -
Magnetawan River Steam Navigation
The first steamboat on the Magnetawan River was the 34-foot "Pioneer", built in 1879 for service between Magnetawan and Burk's Falls, a distance of 20 miles. In 1886, a lock was completed at Magnetawan, enabling steam service to be extended an additional 10 miles to Ahmic Harbour. Other steamers came into service, notably the "Wenonah" (1886), "Glenrosa" (1891), "Wanita" (1896), "Glenada" (1904) and "Armour" (1906). These and others provided the only efficient means of transporting... -
Lake Nipissing
About 9000 B.C., when the glacial ice began to retreat from this area for the last time, the Nipissing basin formed an easterly extension of an ancestral Georgian Bay. The weight of ice had depressed the land, thus providing an outlet to the Ottawa Valley for the waters of the prehistoric Upper Great Lakes basin. Owing to the gradual uplift of the land following the retreat of the ice, the eastward flow ceased about 2000 B.C. Thereafter Lake Nipissing drained westward, forming the French River, which later became a link in the historic canoe route to the West. -
Magnetawan Lock
The lock at Magnetawan, built by the Ontario Government, 1883-86, was replaced in 1911 by the present concrete structure. The original stone-filled timber cribwork measured 112 by 28 feet. The lock raised or lowered steamers about ten feet, enabling them to run between Ahmic Harbour, ten miles below Magnetawan, and Burk's Falls, twenty miles above it. In the quarter-century following its completion, an average of 704 passages were made through the lock by steamships each... -
Founding of Parry Sound
About 1857, James and William Gibson erected a sawmill at the mouth of the Seguin River. William Beatty, with his sons James and William, acquired the mill in 1863, and the following year were granted a license of occupation for some 2,000 acres. In addition to lumbering, they laid out a town plot, promoted settlement, opened a store, built a church, constructed roads and operated boats on Lake Huron and a stage service to Bracebridge... -
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... -
Quetico-Superior
A wilderness area of unequalled scenic beauty, Quetico-Superior has long been a focal point for recreationists and conservationists. At the turn of the century, public concern about outdoor recreation and wilderness protection in the Rainy Lake watershed led to the designation in 1909 of the Superior National Forest, the Minnesota Game Reserve and the Quetico Forest Reserve. Four years later, Quetico became a provincial park. Since that time, the governments of the United States, Minnesota... -
Louis Hémon 1880-1913
The author of "Maria Chapdelaine", Hémon was born at Brest, France. He emigrated to Canada in 1911 and spent about eight months in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec. While working on a farm near Péribonka, he wrote this well-known novel, a story of habitant pioneer life, which won widespread recognition. Acclaimed by literary critics in France, it was translated into English and many other languages. The French and English versions sold over a million...