For thousands of years, the Ottawa Valley had been occupied by early peoples. One history book by the late Clyde Kennedy, an avid amateur archaeologist, sets out what is known of those ancient people. (See an excerpt from Kennedy’s 1970 book). Archaeological evidence was uncovered in the 1960’s on Morrison Island, which sits in the Ottawa River’s channel opposite present-day Laurentian Valley Township.
Morrison’s Island – Ile Morrison – On the southeast corner is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Ottawa Valley, the Morrison’s Island site. Discovered in 1961 and excavated between 1961 and 1962, the site produced a rich assemblage of copper, chipped stone, ground stone and bone tools, representing the remains of an ancient Aboriginal workstation, a fishing camp and a cemetery, all about 5500 years of age. Opposite the Morrison Island site, on Allumette Island, is another site of similar age indicating that this was a much-used locale in prehistoric times. Evidence from other sites indicates that human occupation of the Ottawa Valley goes back at least 6000 years and possibly as much as 10,000 years ago. During the time of the earliest Euro-Canadian exploration, the region was in the possession of the Algonquin Indians. – From William E. Logan’s 1845 Survey of the Upper Ottawa Valley Page 110.
As the ancestral homeland of the Algonquin First Nation peoples, the Upper Ottawa River Valley has known human occupation for thousands of years. The land remained unchanged as the native peoples practiced the belief that everything that the Creator has created on Mother Earth, should be protected. Then the Europeans arrived.
The population numbers of natives dropped precipitously throughout the Ottawa Valley in the 1800s and sometimes a lumber camp worker would document that calamitous mortality rate. Deaths in the back woods usually went unreported.
More on the Algonquin First Nation: http://algonquinsofpikwakanagan.com/index.php and http://www.algonquinnation.ca/
The indigenous peoples shared their transport – the canoe – and their knowledge of the river and its tributaries with the early explorers.
The First Nation mode of transportation – the iconic birch bark canoe – was quickly adopted by the newcomers. The canoes were enlarged; to become the “freighters” in the push into the vast hinterland. Birch Bark Canoes
The history of the Great Valley of the Kichi Sibi (Great River) and its inhabitants is the topic of two books by elected chiefs of their respective communities and are well reviewed by Jean Luc Pilon of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in the Canadian Journal of Archaeology; 2006, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p332 . The books might be a bit hard to find but worthwhile.
The river has finally been recognized for its place in Canadian history: Heritage Status for Ottawa River.
HENRY HUDSON – “H H 1612 Captive”:
An intriguing mystery, and a theory to solve it, is found in The Hudson Stone: A Clue to a 400 Year Old Mystery. Could it be true? Are his descendants still living in the area?
Samuel de Champlain’s Foray of 1613 to Allumette Island
Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) stayed 12 times in the Americas in total. On his explorations of 1613 he came up the Ottawa River from his base in Hochelaga (Montreal), and in his diaries, he recorded his meeting with the Indigenous Peoples of the Upper Ottawa. He crossed overland using Westmeath Township’s Muskrat Lake and Stogua Portage. Not only noting the geography and compass bearings of the land he traversed, Champlain was a chronicler of the first order, writing of the natives’ farming, burials and lifestyle and left us diaries of detailed summaries of his travels and explorations.
PETOBY LAKE – an older name for Lower Allumette Lake which is on Westmeath Township’s western shore. Research on the name turns up only a handful of documents using it, mostly on maps from the 1830s. Then the usage seems to have been dropped.
Was Petoby the Algonquin name for the lake? Please write to this site if you know.
Champlains-journey-1613-ENG.This quick overview sets out Champlain’s time in the Westmeath Township area.
The accepted opinion was that Champlain’s measurements and compass bearings, which he had precisely set down in his writings, were inconsistent with the actual landmarks and distances. It was commonly thought that the party had left Muskrat Lake at its northern end and then climbed up and over the elevation of Cambrian rock called the Muskrat Fault before crossing overland northward on the “Stoqua Portage“.
But newer thinking published in 2006 by Pembroke’s David J.A. Croft says that Samuel de Champlain’s calculated distances are correct if the wide floodplain and marshlands of the Muskrat Lake and Muskrat River were in full flood. That could be caused by many natural causes such as heavy rains, late spring run-off, obstruction or damning of the river by toppled trees. Croft set out to prove his new idea that the Champlain party used instead the historic Winter Road or Meath Portage which extends from Meath Lake to Lower Allumette Lake.
Click: Champlain’s Portage from Muskrat Lake to the Ottawa River by David J.A. Croft.
A study of topographic maps and aerial photographs supports the accuracy of Champlain’s records of camps and portage routes during his short trip in the Ottawa Valley. In 1613, Champlain travelled from a location near present-day Cobden on Muskrat Lake to Lower Allumette Lake, a widening of the Ottawa River near present-day Pembroke. The accuracy of Champlain’s recorded distances and routes have been questioned. In the twentieth century, historians confused by Champlain’s geographical and metric records came to erroneous published conclusions, which this study refutes. Summary from Craft’s Paper in Ontario Archeology, No. 81-82, 2006.
Maps are taken from David Croft’s 2006 paper in Ontario Archaeology.
Open Works of Samuel de Champlain, from the University of Toronto Archives, to read all of his explorations in detail. This excellent volume includes his maps and illustrations. From it comes the excerpt used here, dealing with the Westmeath Township leg of his travels. He introduces us to two Algonquin Chiefs: Chief Nicbachis and Chief Tessouat.
Champlain’s first-hand Observations: Excerpts The Works of Samuel de Champlain Vol II
Champlain was only one of many explorers using the river as a highway to the north and west; – the Canadian Museum of History website has extensive listings under New France and Champlain. This is a quick and easy way to brush up on the early Canadian history.
The river was the main route into the continent and the riches the explorers sought for their European masters. New France was well established as a colony and throughout the seventeenth century, many expeditions lead by fearless, and sometimes foolhardy leaders explored the region. The Town of Mattawa, Ontario, located at the mouth of the Mattawa River where it enters the Ottawa River, celebrates these men with a well-executed collection of wooden carvings of the explorers: Click here for more on the larger-than-life carvings.
“Just about every North American explorer of note at one time or another paddled up the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, en route to the hinterland of this great continent. They rubbed shoulders with missionaries, First Nations and colorful, local characters who became legends in their own right.”
In an area now boasting one of the biggest Canadian Armed Forces Bases at Garrison Petawawa, we note the earliest military man who traveled up the Ottawa Valley: the Chevalier de Troyes. A captain of a company of French Marines on duty in the colony, Pierre de Troyes lands at Québec on August 1, 1685. The Chevalier de Troyes, thought to be “the smartest and most capable”, came through the valley with 100 men, 30 of which were French garrison solders. They camped at Lake Coulonge on their way to James and Hudson’s Bay.
The late Clyde C. Kennedy in his 1970 book “The Upper Ottawa Valley, A Glimpse of History” gives the following descriptions of that military expedition:
The Garrison Petawawa Cinema building is named for Chevalier de Troyes, to honour a fellow soldier being the first to bring troops through the upper Ottawa Valley.
The Native Art in Canada website by Ojibwa authors gives a quick explanation of the men who travelled the river for a living. As the pace of the quest for pelts quickened, the romance of the hardy a “coureur des bois” (coureur de bois, wood-runner, or bush-loper, to the English,) is quickly offset with the truth of how tough of body and mind these men had to be. Their transition into “voyageurs” in the employ of the trading companies is a story of nation-building as a business enterprise. The Ottawa River, also known by the name Grand River, was their highway.
How was Lake Coulonge named?
Nicholas d’Ailleboust, Sieur de Coulonge, spent the winter of 1694-95 near the mouth of the Coulonge River and so established one of the first settlements on the Ottawa River.
The first trading post was called Fort-Coulonge. In 1760, the Northwest Company took over its management and in 1821, the Fort became the property of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Until 1828, it served as the head post on the Ottawa River. The post’s 655 acre farm was sold in 1844 and the buildings in 1855. The trading post became the village of Fort-Coulonge situated several kilometres down river. Courtesy of the MRC of Pontiac.
This table, shown below, from a Pontiac Quebec website, shows the first inroads of the white men up the Ottawa and into the Lake Coulonge area – as early as the seventeenth century. The river was a major commercial highway.
| Township | Date | Action | Revised to township / comments | page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portage du Fort | 1611 | landed | Nicholas Vignau, a white scout, landed | 17 |
| Fort Coulonge | 1694 | establish | Louis d’Ailleboust established a fur trading post near the mouth of the Coulonge River | 17 |
| Fort Coulonge | 1694-1695 | wintered establish | Nicholas d’Ailleboust spent the winter near the mouth of the Coulonge River thus establishing one of the earliest settlements on the Ottawa River | 10 |
| Fort Coulonge | 1760 | takeover | The trading post was taken over by the North West Company | 10 |
| Clarendon Tp. | 1792 | planned | 8 | |
| Eardley Tp. | 1806, Aug. 22 | erected | 15 | |
| Fort Coulonge | 1821 | transfer | The fort became the property of the Hudson Bay Company | 10 |
| Clarendon Tp. | 1826 | grants | Land grants to the first 15 settlers | 8 |
| Clarendon Mills | 1827, 1828 | build | Saw and grist mills built under ret. Ensign James Prendergast | 8 |
| Fort William | 1829 | establish | As a Hudson Bay Post | 21 |
| Clarendon, Mun. of | 1841 | establish | 9 | |
| Fort Coulonge | 1844, 1855 | sold | Hudson Bay Co. sold 655 acre farm in 1844 and buildings in 1855 | 10 |
| Bristol, Min. of | 1846 | incorp. | 5 | |
| Calumet Island Tp. | 1846 | erected | 23 | |
| Litchfield, Mun. of | 1846, Nov. 20 | erected | 12 | |
| Allumette Island Tp. | 1847 | incorp. | 3 | |
| Lac des Allumette | 1848 | rename | Fort William, upon establishment of a post office | 21 |
from http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onrenfre/gazetteer_Pont.html#table3.