Historical Plaques of |
Historical Plaques of |
1870 In May 1870, Col. Garnet Wolsey arrived here with an expeditionary force of British regulars and Canadian militia aboard the steamer 'Chicora'. They were travelling to Fort Garry on the Red River to put down an uprising led by Louis Riel. The canal at the Sault was then on American territory, and Wolsey was compelled to debark and transport his troops and military supplies overland on the Ontario side. The 'Chicora' was then permitted to traverse the canal and take aboard her passengers and cargo. This incident promoted the construction of a Canadian canal which was completed in 1895. |
To Etienne Brule and Companion Grenolle who were the first white men to see St. Mary's rapids and Lake Superior. |
Evidence of radioactive ore prompted Aimé Breton and Karl Gunterman to stake claims south of here near Lauzon Lake in Long Township in 1948. Geologist Franc R. Joubin became interested and persuaded mining financier Joseph H. Hirshhorn to fund drilling operations. In 1953 they located the ore body that became the Pronto Uranium Mine. The discovery of further uranium deposits near Quirke and Elliot lakes led to a mining boom. The town of Elliot Lake flourished until the U.S. stopped buying Canadian uranium in 1959. By the late 1960s, non-military uses for uranium were being developed, and mining activity revived. By 1970 the Elliot Lake camp had produced uranium oxide worth $1.3 billion. Tourism and Recreation |
Some 25 miles southwest of here lies the Detour Passage between Drummond Island and Michigan's upper peninsula. In August, 1814, it was occupied by the armed U.S. schooners "Tigress" and "Scorpion", whose intention it was to prevent supplies reaching the British garrison at Michilimackinac. On September 1 a British force of seamen, soldiers and Indians under Lieutenants Miller Worsley, R.N., and Andrew Bulger left Michilimackinac in small boats to attack the enemy. The "Tigress" was boarded on September 3 under cover of darkness. Two days later the "Scorpion" came to anchor nearby and, unaware of her sister ship's capture allowed her to come alongside. Taken by surprise, the "Scorpion" was captured after a sharp fight. |
The original claim to the Bruce Mine location was filed in September, 1846 by James Cuthbertson. It was acquired the following year by the Montreal Mining Company, and production commenced in 1847-48 at what became the first commercially successful copper mine in Canada. Employing skilled Cornish workers, the company operated the mine until 1865 when it was purchased by the West Canada Mining Company. That firm had leased part of the property in 1853 and opened the nearby Wellington and Copper Bay Mines. Though the Bruce Mines were among the most productive on the continent, declining profits forced them to close in 1876, and subsequent attempts to resume operations met with limited success. |
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SAULT STE. MARIE CANAL LE PREMIER The French explorers who first reached this favoured Ojibway hunting and fishing ground were soon followed by fur traders and missionaries who built a post and mission. By 1762 the region had come under British control and the trade eventually fell into the hands of the North West Company. Canoes and larger boats were towed through the rapids, sometimes by oxen, until 1797-8 when the Company built a canal with a wooden lock sufficiently large to admit a Montréal canoe. The lock was destroyed by American troops in 1814. Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada |
This is a restoration of the first Bateau |
Travellers on the canoe route to the West had to make a portage around the St. Mary's rapids. The North West Company established a fur-trading post south of the river by 1791. After the British abandoned their occupation of the American midwest, the company moved its post here in 1797. The depot eventually included storehouses, a canal and lock, a sawmill, and a portage road. Wharves were built at either end of the rapids for boats to unload supplies. An American invasion fleet razed the site in 1814, but the Nor'Westers rebuilt it almost immediately. It became a Hudson's Bay Company post following the union of the two rival fur trading companies in 1821. Ministry of Culture and Communications |
Shingwauk Hall was erected in 1935 to house a residential training school established in 1873 by the Reverend Edward F. Wilson. Under this Anglican missionary's tutelage the institution, named after the well-known Ojibway Chief Augustin Shingwauk (Little Pine), provided Indian children with religious instruction, occupational training and homemaking skills. The first frame structure, located at the nearby Garden River Reserve, was destroyed by fire within six days of its completion, and the foundation stone for a new three-storey stone building was laid here in 1874 by the Earl of Dufferin, the Governor-General of Canada. Other buildings were added, but of these the Bishop Fauquier Chapel, completed in 1883, is the sole remaining structure. Ministry of Culture and Recreation |
This church was constructed in 1875 and dedicated in 1876 as the Parish Church of The Sacred Heart by Bishop Jean-Francois Jamot. It replaced a wooden building constructed in 1846 which had served as a Jesuit missionary post for this region. Built of local red-gray sandstone, it was designed in the Gothic Revival style with a single nave, tall lancet windows, and an imposing tower and slate roof. In 1901 transepts were added and in 1930 a new vestry was built. Both additions adhere to the original style. The Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie was created by the Holy See in 1904 and this church was selected as the Diocesan Cathedral. It was renamed the Cathedral of the Precious Blood in 1936. Ministry of Culture and Recreation |
1796 - 1870 Here, on a portion of his former estate, is buried Col. Prince who emigrated from England in 1833 and settled at Sandwich, Upper Canada. As commanding officer of the Essex Militia, he stirred up a violent controversy by ordering the summary execution of four members of an armed force sympathizing with Mackenzie's Rebellion which invaded the Windsor area from Detroit in December, 1838. He represented Essex in the legislative assembly 1836-40 and 1841-54. Prince was appointed the first judge of the Algoma District in 1860. Colourful and eccentric, he became one of early Sault Ste. Marie's best known citizens. |
Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in London, this famous 19th century author, illustrator and social reformer joined her husband, Robert Jameson, Attorney General of Upper Canada, at Toronto in 1836. The following June, unescorted, Mrs. Jameson travelled to Port Talbot, Detroit, and Mackinaw. From there she journeyed by bateau to Sault Ste. Marie, descended the rapids, and attended an Indian Assembly at Manitoulin. She travelled on to Toronto by way of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Upon her return to England in 1838, Mrs. Jameson published an account of her tour entitled "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada". This book became an invaluable historical source for the life and personalities of the period. Therafter Mrs. Jameson devoted much time to social and educational reform for English women. Ministry of Culture and Recreation |
Billy "O" was a well known citizen, musher and legend in this area. Over the years he entered many dog sled races, including the 1992 Alaskan Iditarod, not to win, but to compete for himself and his dogs. Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, October 13, 1943, Bill met his untimely death February 19, 1994, doing what he loved best. Bill went through the ice in Little Bay De Noe in Escanaba, Michigan, attempting to save his 9 beloved dogs. He managed to save 2 before he succumbed to the icy waters of Lake Michigan. September, 1997 |
On its Centennial, the Community of Goulais River commemorates the gift of the land for this Cemetery by Captain Frederick Tilley and his wife Sarah in 1889. The first white settlers in this area, the Tilleys arrived here by sailboat from Kincardine, Ontario in May 1878 and established their homestead near this site. courageous Pioneers of the past 100 years we dedicate this plaque. |
This plaque stands approximately at the halfway point of the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia. The highway's construction, in conjunction with the provinces, was authorized by the federal parliament in 1949. The official opening for through traffic of this 4,860 mile route, of which about 1,453 miles are within Ontario, took place on September 3, 1962. However, with a completion of a section of Highway 11 between Longlac and Hearst in 1944, it had been possible previously to cross Ontairo from Quebec to Manitoba. The opening of the Trans-Canada Highway provided a shorter first-class route drawing together widely separated regions of Ontario. |
The nearby Michipicoten River formed an important link in the canoe route from Lake Superior to James Bay via the Michipicoten, Missinaibi and Moose Rivers. The route was probably explored at an early date by the French fur traders who maintained a post at Michipicoten. However the first recorded journeys were not made until the 1770's when the Hudson's Bay Company began to establish fur-trading posts along this route inland from Moose Fort. In 1781 Philip Turnor, the Company's first full-time surveyor, made a detailed investigation of the waterway. Considerable improvements were made to the portages along the route which, after 1821, became the Hudson's Bay Company's supply-line for its Lake Superior District. Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario |
The ripple marks on the adjacent rock face were made some two billion years ago by waves in a shallow body of water. Buried by later desposition of silt and then subjected to great pressure, the rippled sand became sandstone. The formation was subsequently tilted 60 degrees from the horizontal by crumpling of the Earth's crust. This exceptional feature is of particular interest in that there are at least three distinct beds of sandstone, two of them with ripple-marks oriented almost at right angles to each other. This implies an abrupt change in the direction either of the shoreline of of the current. Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario |
The first decked vessel to sail Lake Superior was constructed near this site on Pointe aux Pins in 1734-35. It was used by Louis Denis, Sieur de la Ronde, during an unsuccessful attempt to establish copper mines on the southern shore of the lake. Alexander Henry, one of the leading fur traders during the early years of the British regime, built a barge of 13 tonnes in 1770 and in August, 1772, launched a sloop of 36 tonnes. These vessels transported supplies to a short-lived copper mine developed by Henry and his associates near Point Mamainse. |
In 1924, the government of Ontario set up a provincial air service to replace forest fire detection by canoe and foot patrols. Based at Sault Ste. Marie, the service's aircraft became known as the "Yellowbirds" because of their yellow and black colours. The Yellowbirds detected fire, transporting fire fighters and supplies and, from the 1950s on, pioneered the use of water bombers in battling wilderness blazes. Over the years the service also provided aerial support for mapping, wildlife management, regulatory compliance and other provincial programs. In performing so many functions across a vast territory, the Yellowbirds grew into one of the largest non-commercial air services in the world. |
