Historical Plaques of |
Historical Plaques of |
| Algonquin Regiment In memory of the officers and men of the Algonquin Regiment who gave their lives in service to Canada |
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North Face (front): Jacques Cartier East face: 25e anniversaire de la Fondation De La FFCF 1963-1988 West face: La Societe' Historique Du Nippising Commemore la Fe^te De La Saint-Jean-Baptiste Organise'e Par La Federation Des Femmes Canadiennes-Francaises en collaboration avec Les Originismes Francophones De La Region 22 Juin 80 21 Juin 81 20 Juin 82 |
The historic La Vase (Mud) portages began at the head of |
Trading in furs at this junction of historic canoe routes probably began during the Frencg regime. At intervals during the 1820's and 1830's Chief Trader John Siveright, 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 this point. In later years, faced with diminishing fur trade, the post supplied its former rivals the lumbermen and turned to general trade in the community which grew around it. Mattawa House was closed in 1908. |
1. To learn more about Tom Thomson please visit the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery 2. To learn more about Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven and view some paintings please visit the McMichael Collection website. |
1877-1917 This distinguished painter was born in Claremont, Ontario and grew up near Owen Sound. While working as a photo-engraver in Toronto, he met some of the artists who later formed the Group of Seven. They encouraged him to pursue a career in art and he, in turn, introruced them to the north county and exercised a profound influence on their work. From 1912, Thomson visited Algonquin Park where the colours and moods captured his imagination. Before his death on this lake he had developed a bold new way of depicting our wilderness and had given Canadians a unique artistic heritage. Many of his greatest works were inspired within a few miles of this site. Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada |
In 1900 the Ontario Government ordered a survey for a railway from North Bay to the head of Lake Timiskaming to encourage settlement and provide access to mineral deposits. Construction of the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway began in 1902, and the following year silver and cobalt were discovered in what was to become the Cobalt mining field. By 1908 the main line had reached the site of Cochrane, and branch lines were built to other new mining areas. Between 1928-32 the railway was extended to Moosonee on James Bay. Renamed the Ontario Northland Railway in 1940, this provincially-owned line was primarily responsible for the development of northeastern Ontario. |
A zealous Methodist missionary descended from an early New England family, Huntington was born in Kemptville. With his ordination in 1854 he commenced a long Christian ministry, serving various congregations in eastern Ontario and Quebec until 1882 when he was posted to Mattawa. Using this mission as a base, Huntington travelled extensively, visiting outlying settlements and work camps along the CPR as far west as Schreiber. Reputedly the first Protestant missionary to reach many northern communities, he is credited with establishing several pastoral charges, including this congregation formed in 1882. His unflagging energy and magnetic personality gained him immense popularity and respect throughout the north, and in 1960 Huntington University, now Huntington College in Laurentian University Sudbury, was named in his honour. Ministry of Citizenship and Culture |
Born in France about 1598, this explorer, fur trader and interpreter came to Canada in 1618. Under orders from Samuel de Champlain, he spent the following two years with the Algonguins of Allumette Island. He was then sent to the Nipissing Indians of this area and dwelt among them for at least eight years, learning their language, adopting their customs, and strengthening their alliance with the French. Nicolet is generally credited with the discovery of Lake Michigan which he explored as far south as the head of Green Bay in 1634. He later settled in Trois Rivières and was drowned in the St. Lawrence in 1642. |
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 of the village and attracted many French-Canadian settlers to the area. Some of the most prominent were Joseph Michaud, Zotique Mageau, Georges L'évesque, J. D. Cockburn and J. A. Lévis. In 1895, with a population of about 850, Sturgeon Falls was incorporated as a Town. Ministry of Colleges and Universities |
1848 - 1926 Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination in 1881 he was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis' travels as a missionary provided information for his pamphlet "From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay". In it he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the Congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in the region of Verner and took up farming himself. An enterprising individual, he prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake, wrote, painted in water colour and worked on the compilation of an Ojibwa dictionary. He died in Montreal on May 10, 1926. Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario |
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 1870's it was moved to this site on Bear Island. |
Here, when the canoe was the principal means of travel, exploreres, 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, 1615, Jean Nicolet, 1620, fathers Brébeuf, 1626, and Lalemant, 1648, Radisson and Groseilliers, 1685, La Vérendrye, 1731, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 1794, and David Thompson, 1812. |
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 north eastern 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. He took the name Grey Owl (Wa-Sha Quon-Asin) and turned his efforts to conservation, pleading for recognition of "the natural brotherhood between man and animals". Grey owl gained international fame as a writer and public speaker. |
